Program pengiriman calon perawat dan care worker Indonesia ke Jepang melalui kerangka Japan Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement sejak 2008 merupakan lembaran baru bagi hubungan kedua negara. Lalu bagaimana media massa Jepang memaknai kedatangan tenaga kerja Indonesia ini? Melalui teori semiotika Roland Barthes penelitian ini berusaha menangkap representasi identitas para calon perawat dan care worker Indonesia dalam artikel-artikel berita pada salah satu media massa Jepang, The Asahi Shimbun Digital. Dengan analisis makna konotasi terhadap unsur kebahasaan dalam artikel berita The Asahi Shimbun Digital, penelitian ini menemukan bahwa representasi-representasi identitas yang ditampilkan melanggengkan ideologi-ideologi tertentu.

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The sending of Indonesian nurse and care worker candidates since 2008 through the framework of Japan Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement is a new chapter in the relations between the two countries. The question is how Japanese mass media interpret the migration of Indonesian labor to their country? By using Roland Barthes semiotics theory, this research captured the representation of identity of Indonesian nurse and care worker candidates identity in the news articles on one of the Japanese mass media, The Asahi Shimbun Digital. Through the analysis of connotative meanings of linguistic elements in the news articles, this research found that representations of identity perpetuate certain ideologies.