I received my PhD degree in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2025. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. I specialize in labor migration in East Asia. I am interested in the design, reform, and implementation of labor migration programs, and migrant workers’ transnational experiences. Funded by Fulbright-Hays Program, my dissertation examines the liberal reform of Japan’s labor migration programs and its implementation. The programs consist of a guest worker program, the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), and the newly liberalized program called the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW). I have conducted a range of research projects: Chinese construction workers’ experiences under the TITP (published in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2024 ), Southeast Asian workers’ experiences in the agriculture and food processing industry under the SSW (International Migration Review, online first), and the criminalization of female migrant workers who have to hide their pregnancies and go through isolated childbirth. My dissertation has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the U.S.-Japan Foundation Scholar Dissertation Award (2025).

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I am currently working on two research projects: one focuses on the roles of humanitarian actors (in particular, labor unions) in resolving labor disputes and alleviating migrant workers’ precarities; the other examines female migrant workers’ reproductive health and rights. I have been participating in activities organized by humanitarian organizations that aim to extend migrants’ rights and improve their living and working conditions. Under “Gallery”, I maintain a collection of photos from these activities and my fieldwork.