Crossing borders: experiences of Japanese women overseas

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1990s, there has been a rising trend of women in Japan leaving the country to experience life over- seas either as tourists, students or for employment. The mid-1990s is further regarded as a period of boom among the Japanese women who venture overseas especially Asian destinations such as Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asian nations like Sin- gapore and Malaysia in search of the adventure to live and work in a foreign environment. What are their experiences like? Are these women-who divert from the usual track of marriage after working as an OL in Japan-considered unique in the context of Japanese women? What are the implications of working overseas for the individual, the host society and a Japan that is bur-dened with unprecedented fall in fertility rate and economic recession?