Abstract Faced with a pressing demand for eldercare workers, Japan signed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to recruit workers from Southeast Asian countries. The EPA limits the employment period for migrant workers, unless they successfully pass the healthcare licensure examination in Japanese. Therefore, they receive on-the-job training and prepare for the examination, making their host institutions partly responsible for assisting the training and exam preparation. In this system, migrants’ Japanese ability, tested against a strict standard, is the key to their being successfully accepted as good workers. Migrant workers and their employers are thus important actors in a neoliberal logic in which mastering a specific language practice and demonstrating it on standardized tests is deemed important for one’s social mobility. To analyse how this logic is realised in a healthcare workplace, this paper draws on fieldwork data in an eldercare home employing EPA workers. The operation scheme of the EPA and institutional policy will be highlighted as underlying mechanisms for the creation of neoliberal subjects. I argue these measures primarily support the hierarchical relationships between Japanese and non-Japanese, and between employer and employee. I also discuss consequential ways in which on-the-job training has differentially impacted employment trajectories of the migrant workers.

中文翻译：

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医疗保健，语言和自由贸易协议：针对移民医疗保健工作者的在职日语培训的制度逻辑

摘要面对老年人护理工人的迫切需求，日本签署了《经济伙伴关系协定》（EPA），以从东南亚国家招募工人。EPA限制移民工人的就业期限，除非他们成功通过日语的医疗保健执照考试。因此，他们接受在职培训并为考试做准备，使他们的寄宿学校部分负责协助培训和考试准备。在这个体系中，移民的日语能力经过严格的测试，是成功被接纳为好工人的关键。因此，移民工人及其雇主是新自由主义逻辑中的重要角色，在新自由主义逻辑中，掌握一种特定的语言习惯并在标准化测试中加以证明对一个人的社会流动性很重要。为了分析在医疗保健工作场所中如何实现这种逻辑，本文借鉴了雇用EPA工人的养老院的现场调查数据。EPA的运作方案和体制政策将被强调为创建新自由主义主体的基本机制。我认为这些措施主要支持日本人与非日本人之间以及雇主与雇员之间的等级关系。我还将讨论在职培训对农民工就业轨迹产生不同影响的相应方式。我认为这些措施主要支持日本人与非日本人之间以及雇主与雇员之间的等级关系。我还将讨论在职培训对农民工就业轨迹产生不同影响的相应方式。我认为这些措施主要支持日本人与非日本人之间以及雇主与雇员之间的等级关系。我还将讨论在职培训对农民工就业轨迹产生不同影响的相应方式。