Disability News Japan Podcast: After a Snowstorm in Japan & Fukushima’s Disability Employment Rate Woes

By Barrier Free Japan

January 27 2023

The rate of employment of people with disabilities, whereby companies are obliged to increase the employment of people with disabilities, reached the highest level in the prefecture last year, but nearly 30% of companies do not employ even one person, NHK found out in a summary by the Fukushima labor bureau.

According to the summary, as of June 1, last year, the employment rate of target companies in the prefecture was 2.19% as a whole, an increase of 0.04 points from the previous year, the highest ever. It was 0.06 points below the average of 2.25%. Only 825 companies, or 54.3% of the target companies, achieved the legal employment rate of 2.3%, which is required by law for private companies.

Public institutions such as prefectures and municipalities have a legal employment rate of 2.6%, and as of the 1st of last month, 30, or about 40%, of the prefecture’s 79 institutions have not achieved it.

Episode notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/01/26/rate-of-employment-of-people-with-disabilities-in-fukushima-despite-nearly-30-of-companies-not-employing-any-disabled/