No.39 Development of an International Labor Migration Simulation Game: Toward Fostering an Inclusive Work Environment

This study developed and evaluated an educational board game simulating the pre-departure process of international labor migration, designed to foster inclusive team cultures in Japanese organizations. Through semi-structured interviews with 128 prospective Indonesian migrant workers and 30 stakeholders, we identified five major themes regarding challenges the pre-migration preparation phase, which subsequently informed the development of a simulation game that incorporates empirically documented risks and opportunities across the nine essential preparation steps. The game was trialed with 11 members of multicultural teams in Japanese organizations. The evaluation results demonstrated the game’s effectiveness in promoting enhanced recognition of multi-level risks, emotional responses that paralleled real-world risk events, and a deeper understanding of migration dynamics. However, learning outcomes varied based on the participants’ prior knowledge, suggesting the need for calibrated complexity levels. The study concludes that simulation-based learning can effectively facilitate the understanding of migration experiences and promote inclusive organizational environments while highlighting areas for future development, including structured debriefing protocols and long-term impact assessment.

Keywords: Labor migration, Inclusive society, Education tool, Multi-cultural understanding