Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reports 102,118 Disabled people gained employment in 2018

Written with extracts from the Iwate Nippo

June 18th 2019

KYODO –   Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced on the June 18th that there were a total of 102,318 disabled people who got a job through jobseekers magazine ‘Hello Work’ in the whole country in 2018, a record high. This is an increase of 4.6% from the previous year.

The Employment Promotion Act for Disabled Persons requires private companies to employ at least 2.2% of disabled persons of all employees. It used to be more than 2.0% in the past, but it has been raised since April 18th, and it seems to have helped the disabled to find employment.

A total of 211,127 people wanted to find a new job in the same fiscal year, and the percentage of those who could actually find a job was 48.4%.

By industry, health and welfare accounted for 34.7%, manufacturing 14.2% and wholesale and retail 12.3%.