1 This is a pre-publication draft of: Ormond, M. and Toyota, M. (2016, forthcoming) ‘Confronting economic precariousness through international retirement migration: Japan’s old-age “economic refugees” and Germany’s “exported grannies”’, in J.M. Rickley-Boyd, K. Hannam and M. Mostafanezhad (eds), Tourism and Leisure Mobilities: Politics, Work and Play, Abingdon: Routledge. Confronting economic precariousness through international retirement migration: Japan’s old-age ‘economic refugees’ and Germany’s ‘exported grannies’ Meghann Ormond (Wageningen University, Netherlands) and Mika Toyota (Rikkyo University, Japan) Introduction Many of the world’s demographically oldest countries are increasingly ‘outsourcing’ care from abroad for their elderly. Indeed, seniors wishing to age in place in countries like Germany and Singapore are making – and in some cases, as in Japan, beginning to explore how to make – use of at- home help, frequently provided by female migrant care workers (see, e.g., Lutz and Palenga- Mollenbeck 2010; Lopez 2012; Huang et al. 2013). However, as with the 2011 film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, premised on budget-conscious British pensioners opting to spend the rest of their lives in India, more seniors are also relocating abroad for more affordable long-term domestic or institutional living and care arrangements (Toyota 2006; Ormond 2014). Compared with traditional accounts of ‘International Retirement Migration’ (IRM) that take as their prime subjects a pool of relatively autonomous, mobile, affluent and healthy ‘young old’ (King et al. 2000), this relatively novel type of relocation draws attention to the significance of economic precariousness and its attendant embodied socio-spatial dependencies, vulnerabilities and ‘stuckness’ (Cresswell 2012) underlying this form of transnational mobility for many older people living abroad. Economic motivations – involving the pursuit of safe, friendly, comfortable places in which one’s savings and pension will stretch further for longer – have certainly long been central to IRM relocations. Warm climates, tax advantages and the comforting prospect of returning to one’s country of origin when one’s health declines seemed to go hand-in-hand. However, in recent years, and especially with the global economic crisis, IRM numbers have dropped in traditional destinations, with people opting to stay in or return to their home countries or to move on to alternative climes perceived to be more stable, with immigration and tax regimes favourable to them and (what remains of) their assets (Oxlade 2013; Rainey 2014). Others are limited by unfortunate property investments and waning pensions and welfare benefits, with some consequently entering into old- age poverty in their IRM destinations with limited prospects of returning to their home countries (Betty and Hall 2013). In this chapter, we look at how IRM discourses and practices are shifting and growing more complex by focusing on ‘young old’ and ‘old old’ Japanese and German pensioners who have resettled abroad. Japan is home to the highest proportion of seniors in the world, with 23.1% over the age of 65 in 2010. The percentage is expected to steadily increase to 30% by 2030 and to 40% by 2055. In terms of absolute numbers, 29.44 million were 65 and older in 2010, of which 14.22 million (10% of Japan’s population) were 75 and older (Toyota 2013). In Germany, meanwhile, people aged 75 and older constituted 7% of the population in 2010, a figure expected to rise to over 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2050 – making it among the countries with the oldest populations in the world alongside Japan, South Korea and Italy (Dallinger 2012). By 2050, Germans aged 60 and over will make up more than half of the population, second oldest after Japan (de Pommereau 2013). German insurers cover healthcare and long-term care services beyond their national borders and, while Japan’s national health insurance coverage is reserved for those who pay tax and maintain an