In Japan, foreign workers with legal residency status are protected by Japanese labor acts and regulations. However, when workers encounter the process of pregnancy and childbirth, they seldom seek help because they are afraid of being dismissed, or they do not know whom to turn to for assistance.

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Neither do they dare to seek help from outside nor to reach the systematic support, which may result in the change in their immigrations status, from documented to undocumented. For instance, language school students who work fixed hours per week could no more afford tuition fees due to pregnancy, which would lead to their student identities be revoked, and soon become undocumented populations. Subsequently, it would be more difficult for them to obtain resources and follow-up assistance. Since they are afraid of being deported, they often choose to live in hidden environment. Moreover, the vacuum zone in transnational laws may keep their children lingering in statelessness. For example, the birth parents' country of origin does not recognize the child born in certain conditions as their citizen, resulting in the child drifting in statelessness.

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In addition to labor acts that protect the rights and interests of documented migrant workers, the Maternal and Child Health Act protects anyone in their pregnancy and childbirth, regardless of whom staying in Japan legally or not. In this way, pregnant women are able to obtain maternity resources, such as low-cost or free maternity checkups, subsidies, the maternal and child handbooks, baby vaccines etc. Nonetheless, as a matter of fact, whether either documented or undocumented foreign workers are able to obtain the relevant resources or not is highly affected by man-made factors.

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Theoretically, the Government of Japan provides resources for pregnancy and childbirth regardless of the recipients’ nationalities or legal identity status. However, the execution and implementation varies among, for example, the municipal governments and who sits at the front desk, which may lead to contrasting assessment and pathways of intervention. What made it more difficult for the undocumented migrants to live in Japan was the Immigration Regulation Reform in 2012. Prior to the reform, even if one did not have legal status, the person could register him/herself as a foreign resident at the municipal government locally, which was then called “Alien Registration System”. However, after the reform, foreigners were required to register themselves at the immigrant authorities in Japan at the national level, which was called “New Residency Management System”. This has made the government easier to spot the undocumented migrants, thus, it has become even more challenging for the undocumented migrants to reach the services regarding pregnancy and childbirth.

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In Japan, Japanese parents are obliged to secure their children’s right to education. However, this regulation is limited to children of Japanese nationality. If the children are non-Japanese nationalities, their parents are discretionary to arrange their education. Schooling is still available to children of non-Japanese nationalities, but they are not obliged to go to Japanese public schools. Besides, the opportunities to access education varies according to the policy of municipal government. Some municipal governments allow foreign children to attend public schools; however, some municipal governments require children who are non-Japanese native speakers to learn Japanese before entering public schools.