Research Activities
Research Projects 2026
Workers across the seas: migration and rights protection of Filipino seafarers
Outline
This study focuses on the Philippines, one of the world's leading seafarer-supplying nations, to analyze the historical formation, contemporary labor conditions, protection mechanisms, and sustainability challenges within the global maritime labor market. Adopting a historical perspective, the research traces the development of Filipino seafarer migration from the colonial era to the present, with particular attention to three critical developments: the evolution of foreign seafarer manning policies in the Japanese merchant fleet following the 1985 Plaza Accord and the deepening of Japan-Philippines maritime cooperation; the labor protection reforms introduced by the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers (Republic Act No. 12021, enacted in 2024); and the structural vulnerabilities in seafarer labor exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent legislative responses. The research employs an interdisciplinary analytical framework that integrates Philippine area studies, international labor migration studies, and maritime labor studies. This approach reveals the realities of the workforce that sustains global maritime commerce while remaining largely invisible in both social discourse and policy debates. The study will be published as a monograph accessible to both academic and general readers, providing theoretical insights and policy implications for reconciling workers' rights protection with the sustainability of the maritime industry.
Period
April 2026 - March 2028
Members
| Role | Member |
|---|---|
| [ Organizer ] | Chibana, Izumi |
*Affiliations are as of April 2026.
Expected Outcome
- Book published by IDE (Japanese)