The Future is Foreign

Published Dec. 15, 2025 by Cornell University Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-5017-8435-4

Japan is at the forefront of global population decline. The Future Is Foreign investigates how elite Japanese firms are responding to this unprecedented challenge. Hilary Holbrow argues that labor shortages push Japanese firms to hire more immigrants and women, and to ease excessive demands on all workers. At the same time, not all employees benefit equally.

Japanese women's enduring overrepresentation in low-status clerical roles reinforces gender biases that hold all women back. In contrast, the small but growing presence of white-collar Asian immigrant workers weakens the ethnic prejudices of their Japanese colleagues. Despite Japan's reputation for xenophobia, white-collar immigrant men disproportionally reap the dividends of Japan's shrinking population.

The Future Is Foreign sheds new light on the processes that perpetuate inequality in Japanese firms, and in organizations worldwide. While managers and policymakers often assume that increasing women and minorities' representation in leadership will erode prejudice, Holbrow reveals that …

Japan is at the forefront of global population decline. The Future Is Foreign investigates how elite Japanese firms are responding to this unprecedented challenge. Hilary Holbrow argues that labor shortages push Japanese firms to hire more immigrants and women, and to ease excessive demands on all workers. At the same time, not all employees benefit equally.

Japanese women's enduring overrepresentation in low-status clerical roles reinforces gender biases that hold all women back. In contrast, the small but growing presence of white-collar Asian immigrant workers weakens the ethnic prejudices of their Japanese colleagues. Despite Japan's reputation for xenophobia, white-collar immigrant men disproportionally reap the dividends of Japan's shrinking population.

The Future Is Foreign sheds new light on the processes that perpetuate inequality in Japanese firms, and in organizations worldwide. While managers and policymakers often assume that increasing women and minorities' representation in leadership will erode prejudice, Holbrow reveals that the people we see when we "look down" the organizational hierarchy are more important to the social construction of bias than are the people we see when we "look up."

1 edition

Ben Waber reviewed The Future is Foreign by Hilary J. Holbrow

A Rigorous, Unique Dive into Work in Japan

5 stars

(Disclosure: Hilary is a friend)

Japan is at the forefront of directly grappling with the implications of a declining population, and arguably nowhere do these implications become more pressing than when it comes to work. Specifically, effectively integrating foreigners and women into the workforce in a country that has traditionally been seen as inhospitable to both of those groups.

Through an impressive data collection effort across a dozen large, information-worker intensive firms, Hilary reveals the surprising reality of work for different groups, with non-Western foreigners faring relatively well (albeit still with gaps relative to their Japanese colleagues), and Western men actually still seeing superior outcomes to other groups. These biases are most apparent when it comes to gender differences, and the results here around representation in more front-line roles driving perceptions is extremely important.

This is a very academically-inclined book, which I love but is a personal …

(Disclosure: Hilary is a friend)

Japan is at the forefront of directly grappling with the implications of a declining population, and arguably nowhere do these implications become more pressing than when it comes to work. Specifically, effectively integrating foreigners and women into the workforce in a country that has traditionally been seen as inhospitable to both of those groups.

Through an impressive data collection effort across a dozen large, information-worker intensive firms, Hilary reveals the surprising reality of work for different groups, with non-Western foreigners faring relatively well (albeit still with gaps relative to their Japanese colleagues), and Western men actually still seeing superior outcomes to other groups. These biases are most apparent when it comes to gender differences, and the results here around representation in more front-line roles driving perceptions is extremely important.

This is a very academically-inclined book, which I love but is a personal preference. Beyond that the sample sizes for some of the categories analyzed here are smaller than I'd like for sweeping conclusions, although it's the best data we have at the moment.

Overall, this book is an essential look at how work, organizations, and careers will change as populations shrink in rich countries and they will come to rely more on immigration. The lessons learned here will very quickly need to be applied in other rich countries as they begin to catch up to Japan, ideally at an accelerated pace. Highly recommend

Ben Waber

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December 18

The Future is Foreign

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