DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/kiryoku.v10i2.616-630

Please Don't Touch Me: Invisible Sexual Harassment among Indonesian Female Migrant Care Workers in Japan

1Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

2MR & Partners Law Office, Indonesia

Open Access Copyright (c) 2026 by authors under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.

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Abstract

Japan's aging population has deepened its reliance on migrant care workers, yet research on sexual harassment in Japanese healthcare centers on Japanese nurses, while research on Indonesian care workers centers on language and workload. Neither explains how harassment arises within intimate care, where legitimate professional touch and unwanted sexual touch occur inside the same procedure. This study examines how Indonesian female care workers in Japanese elderly care experience and responds to sexual harassment. Semi-structured interviews with four workers were analyzed thematically, using the framework of Fitzgerald et al. as a sensitizing lens rather than a fixed template. Participants reported gender harassment and, most frequently, unwanted sexual attention during bathing, diaper changing, and intimate hygiene care. Sexual coercion was not identified, since care recipients held no authority over their employment. Such conduct was attributed to age or dementia and left unreported, a pattern the study conceptualizes as institutional vulnerability.

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Keywords: Sexual harassment; migrant care workers; intimate care; institutional vulnerability; Japan

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