Mie Board of Education ‘padded’ disability employment numbers

Written with extracts from The Sankei Shimbun

September 10th 2018

Mie Prefecture Board of Education announced on October 10 that faculty and staff who do not have a handicapped person were included in the number of people with disabilities. 35 people in 2018 44 people in financial year 2017 were appropriately designated as disabled employees.

According to the prefectural board of education, based on self-report from the staff. The board had already included people who retired based on past declarations. In some cases, people who are under medical treatment were included without checking the presence or absence of supporting documentation.

The employment rate for persons with disabilities was 2 · 14% in FY 2017, which was supposed to be 2. 50%, and 1 · 97% in FY 2017, which was 2.41%, which is lower than the statutory employment rate.

Keiko Hirota, education chief, said, “It was not intentional padding, there were not enough confirmation of notebooks, administrative mistakes had overlapped.”