Today Trends

Authors: Stephen Clibborn and Chris F Wright, University of Sydney Australia has been widely regarded internationally as an exemplary ‘nation of immigrants’, with migration policies that effectively serve the national interest. But since the mid-1990s, Australia’s migration system has shifted away from the long-term provision of skills for nation-building towards a guest worker model aimed at satisfying the short-term demands of business. The current migration system inefficiently supplies skills, exposes temporary migrants to underpayment and mistreatment and poorly serves the national interest. It has disintegrated to a point where the recent Parkinson Review of the Migration System and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil declared it ‘broken’ and in need of an overhaul. The Parkinson Review identified three general principles to return to a sound migration system: tripartite involvement of unions and employer associations with government in designing and implementing policy, un

Author: Takeshi Sakade, Kyoto University In December 2022, Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom signed an agreement to partner in the development of a sixth-generation stealth fighter aircraft. The goal of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) is to produce aircraft ready for export and deployment by 2035. This represents a new frontier for Japanese weaponry co-development and is a prime opportunity to enhance regional security cooperation. The United Kingdom’s and Italy’s motivation to partner with Japan in the GCAP is to fill gaps in development funding. The number of aircraft that will be produced and their technological development has improved through Japanese participation in the GCAP. Initially, Japan was seeking ‘Japan-led development’ of its Mitsubishi F-X fighter jet project, with a view to international cooperation in its Medium Term Defense Force Development Plan , assuming joint development with the United States or the United Kingdom. But as the United States was rel

Author: Tomohiko Kimura, Seikei University As China expands its presence among Pacific Island countries by building dual-use infrastructure and providing loans, Japan is seeking to counter Beijing’s influence in the region. The Japanese government is engaging Pacific Island countries through infrastructure projects and multilateral forums to mitigate China’s Pacific presence. Japan has increased its emphasis on an ‘all Japan’ approach toward Pacific Island countries since 2019. At the Ninth Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in July 2021, former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced the Pacific Bond Policy , which aims to strengthen Japan’s ties with Pacific Island countries to realise a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’. Japan is paying greater attention to Pacific Island countries in its foreign policy to check China’s influence . Former foreign minister Taro Kono visited Papua New Guinea in November 2018, as well as Fiji and three Micronesian countries in August 2019 — the

Author: Toan Le, Swinburne University of Technology Vietnam is undergoing a consultation process to amend its Land Law and the related Housing Law , amid declining consumer and investor confidence in Vietnam’s real estate market following rising interest rates and the arrests of two well-known property tycoons . Vietnam’s land, housing and real estate laws are publicly perceived as confusing and complex. A resolution of the Communist Party’s Central Committee issued on 16 June 2022 raised public hopes when it stated that the new laws should harmonise the interests of the people, investors and the state. Yet the government’s draft land and housing laws have been criticised by local actors and business associations for failing to address systemic land and housing issues. Since land is exclusively controlled by the state, a perennial cause of concern is the state’s power to compulsorily acquire land without paying fair compensation. In Vietnam, the state can acquire land for an

Author: Yasuo Takao, Curtin University In the early 1990s, Japan was under pressure to play a larger role in the international community. Japan’s government established the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) in 1993 to transfer skills to trainees from developing countries to meet international community expectations. The introduction of the TITP also coincided with a shortage of labour across Japan, particularly at small firms. The TITP has played an important role plugging labour shortages and has become indispensable as the shortage of Japanese workers has worsened. But while the TITP has been sold as a contribution to international development, this characterisation belies the reality the program. Although the TITP filled labour shortages — a situation which has grown more pronounced — it failed to protect the safety and wellbeing of trainees. In 2017, the Organisation for Technical Intern Training (OTIT) was established as a supervisory agency to oversee the TITP and p

Authors: Durairaj Kumarasamy, MRIIRS, Prakash Singh, GIM, and Sukhvinder Kaur, MRIIRS. Financial inclusion — which aims to provide access to financial services for all individuals and businesses regardless of their social and economic status — has gained significant attention globally. The COVID-19 crisis increased the need for contactless financial products and services, accelerating financial inclusion and the evolution of digital finance. Globally, there has been a great increase in formal bank account ownership from 51 per cent in 2011 to 76 per cent in 2021, with a steep average increase in developing countries from 42 per cent to 71 per cent. During the same period, bank account ownership more than doubled from 35 per cent to 78 per cent in India. But challenges to free access remain, such as the digital divide, lack of financial literacy, cybersecurity and data privacy. The G20 has recognised financial inclusion as a fundamental driver of economic growth, which reduces e

Author: Ryosuke Hanada, Macquarie University Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration dramatically increased Japan’s 2023 defence budget by 26.3 per cent in 2022 to 6.82 trillion yen (US$52 billion). During former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership, the defence budget steadily increased to 5.3 trillion yen (US$39 billion) but stayed between 5–5.2 per cent of the whole government budget. Kishida has now increased the defence budget to 5.9 per cent. Future obligations concerning new contracts for the updated Defense Build-up Program amount to 7.06 trillion yen (US$52 billion). As procurement takes several years, Japan is making as many contracts as possible in the first year of the program to deliver equipment to the Self-Defense Force (SDF) units swiftly. As of May 2023, a month from the start of the Japanese financial year, the government had already announced a 380 billion yen (US$2.8 billion) contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to upgrade and mass-produ

Authors: Hening Wikan, SMERU Research Institute and Dias Prasongko, Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation and third-largest democracy, is scheduled to hold its presidential and legislative elections on 14 February 2024. Though the poll is set for next year, the hype has already crept up, primarily because campaigning will begin during 2023. The long-awaited elections will also be critical in the fight for women’s political issues. During the last election in 2019 , the number of women elected to national parliament reached 20.9 per cent. This is the highest proportion of female legislators elected in Indonesia since its New Order era. This breakthrough appears to be the payoff from women’s activists’ struggle to make the 30 per cent female candidate quota mandatory. It was followed by the implementation of the ‘zipper system’ — which aims to avoid placing female candidates at the bottom of the electoral list, where voters tend to overlook them. Though

Author: Narupat Rattanakit, American University On 11 April 2023, a significant ministerial dialogue between the United States and the Philippines took place after a tumultuous period in the alliance under the previous administrations of presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump. It followed the largest ever US–Philippines joint military drill. This historic moment demonstrates a renewed US commitment to modernising interoperability with one of its oldest allies in Asia. Recent developments have increased the impetus for the alliance’s renewal. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has expressed concerns that a military battle between the United States and China over Taiwan will almost certainly entangle the Philippines. The highly contested grey zone of the South China Sea — an area in which China is making aggressive territorial claims and deploying military assets to disputed islands — is causing significant concern among neighbouring countries. These fears have escalated

Author: Soyoung Kim, Nanyang Technological University With the conclusion of reciprocal visits between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in early May 2023, the Yoon administration must now consolidate their progress by garnering domestic public support for improving the bilateral relationship. Since his inauguration in May 2022, Yoon has eagerly sought to improve the bilateral relationship with Japan, which deteriorated under the previous Moon Jae-in and Shinzo Abe administrations. He has continuously referred to Japan as a cooperative partner and emphasised the need for a future-oriented bilateral relationship. In early 2023, Yoon’s government proposed a third-party compensation scheme for South Korean victims of forced labour during the Japanese colonial era. Voluntary contributions from South Korea’s private sector will fund the compensation money. This aims to alleviate the Japanese government’s outcry over two 2018 South Korean