This article examines the advent ofa new phenomenon - the migration of Brazilian (generally ofJapanese ancestry) guest­ workers to Japan. In Part I, Japan's 1990 immigration policy is described, and the scope ofthe migration and the character­ istics of the guestworkers are presented. In Part II, the article explores how two social institutions affect the migration pro­ cess. Based on interviews with guestworkers and recruiters, the author ;ugues that recruiters, and the economics of their operations, are greatly determinant of the types of jobs migrants get, and that the soda/ relationships underlying migration sente to mask the economics ofrecruitment. More­ over, the experience of the migrants upon arriving in Japan is also a product of soda/ relations, ones in which the ethnicity of these migrants is constructedprimarily on the basis of their position in the labor market and their cultural attributes. In Part Il,l the migration of these lkazilian-Japanese, and the immigration policy permitting it, are shown to be rooted in the failure of alternative policy instruments to resolve labor shortages in Japanese industty and in fears over the impact of widespread immigration.

The informal sector - that of unregulated economic activities - has been the subject of much inquiry and debate among development practitioners and scholars. The discussion has encompassed issues of the .sector's definition and boundaries, political and economic significance, and programmatic (or policy) implications. On none of these issues have researchers been able to agree. At the same time, the 'informal sector' concept has spread beyond its early use in development circles into various disciplinary areas of planning. Our concern in organizing this section was to re-examine the conceptual basis of the infor­ mal sector and its application throughout planning research and analysis.