People with mental disabilities in Japan who work shorter hours to be included in the employment numbers

Extract from The Asahi Shimbun

June 18 2022

TOKYO – The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is planning to allow mentally disabled people who work 10-20 hours per week to be included in the employment rate for disabled people, which companies are obliged to employ. The aim is to encourage people with disabilities who have difficulty working long hours to take up employment. Meanwhile, as the number of people with disabilities working has increased to a certain extent, the support system will be changed to one that emphasizes quality rather than quantity of employment in the future.

On June 17th, the Council of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) compiled a written opinion containing these details. Based on this, a draft amendment to the Law on the Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities will be prepared and submitted to Parliament in autumn or later.

The law requires that a certain percentage of the workforce (the legal employment rate) must be persons with disabilities: 2.3% for companies and 2.6% for the national and local governments.