Qiaoyan Li Rosenberg was selected by the United States-Japan Foundation (USJF) as the inaugural recipient of the United States-Japan Foundation Scholar Dissertation Award, a new annual competition recognizing the best social sciences doctoral dissertation on Japan produced in the United States.

Dr. Rosenberg, a recent graduate of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and current Reischauer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Studies for the 2025-26 academic year, received the award for her dissertation, “Labor Migration Programs in Japan: A Three-Step Pathway to Permanent Residence, but Precarious Labor for All.” The USJF award committee praised the dissertation as a "rigorous, timely, and vital contribution to debates about how advanced economies such as Japan can integrate migrant workers in the face of declining and aging populations." A reception honoring Dr. Rosenberg and introducing the distinguished award committee will take place at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, held from March 12 to 15, 2026, in Vancouver, British Columbia. The full press release can be found here.

At the Reischauer Institute, Dr. Rosenberg will prepare to expand her dissertation into a book manuscript, as well as begin a new research project examining the role of Japanese labor unions in resolving migrant labor disputes and alleviating labor precarity. Later this fall, she will also present a talk in the Japan Forum lecture series about her research.