ABSTRACT
The changing landscape of elderly care in Japan that utilises the labour of migrant workers underscores the question of whether and how care changes depending on who provides it. As Japan participates in the global economy of care through the acceptance of foreign care workers, this study explores the caring relations and interactions between Filipino care workers and Japanese elderly residents in care facilities. While care work as a form of paid care emphasises service and establishes the economic ties between carers and care receivers, this study finds that Filipino care workers aspire for natural caring that resembles the care given in a family. Using the framework of embodiment, this chapter argues that care fostered by touch and skinship, shared vulnerabilities through their dislocations from the family, and ‘being there’, create new meanings of care in the encounters of Filipino carers and the Japanese elderly residents in institutional settings.
