Beyond the silence: Decolonizing Japanese media representations of global south migrant voices

Abstract

Facing the ultimatum of abortion or deportation, female migrant workers in Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program endure systematic reproductive coercion alongside document confiscation, debt bondage, and physical abuse. This study examines how Japanese-language media discourse transforms these experiences through critical discourse analysis of 78 media sources, juxtaposed with first-hand migrant testimonies. Five distinct linguistic strategies emerge: euphemistic framing that reduces rights violations to “workplace harassment,” criminalization narratives constructing victims as perpetrators, inferiority discourses positioning interns as deficient workers, blame displacement to foreign institutions, and contextual mitigation through false redemption narratives. I introduce two theoretical concepts: “reproductive labor neocolonialism,” extending Federici’s framework to contemporary migration systems, and “linguistic epistemic exclusion,” specifying how language barriers prevent subaltern participation in knowledge production. Beyond documenting exploitation, this analysis reveals how media discourse operates as a mechanism of symbolic violence that legitimizes neocolonial labor extraction within Global North-South hierarchies.