1.14 million people with intellectual disabilities living at home in Japan, an increase of 170,000, highest ever number, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Reports

From Jiji via Yahoo! Japan

May 31st 2024

TOKYO – On May 31st, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced the estimated number of people with intellectual disabilities living at home or elsewhere nationwide as of December 2022, is reaching 1.14 million.

This is an increase of 178,000 from the previous survey in 2004 and the largest number ever. The Ministry analyzes that “one of the factors may be the increase in the acquisition of the Rehabilitation Certificate, mainly for infants and children.

The survey is conducted in principle every five years to provide basic information for disability policies. The number of people with disabilities living at home nationwide was estimated based on the situation in randomly selected areas.

By age, the largest group was 20-29 years old, with 229,000 people, accounting for 20.1% of the total. The total number of people under 18 years old was 282,000, an increase of 68,000 from the previous survey.

On the other hand, the number of people with physical disabilities living at home was 4.159 million. This is a decrease of 128,000 from the previous survey due to population decline and other reasons.