LDP panel hears calls from 16 groups to raise disability welfare service fees

From The Fukushi Shimbun via Yahoo! Japan

October 27 2026

TOKYO – A Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) policy panel on disability issues held a hearing on the upcoming revision of disability welfare service fees, scheduled for April next year, on the 19th, listening to 16 organizations concerned with the sector. Eight organizations, including the Japanese Association on Intellectual Disability Welfare, the National Council of Social Welfare Corporation Management and the National Council of Child Development Support, called for an increase in basic reimbursement rates to ensure stable business operations and close the wage gap with other industries, citing survey findings that 55% of service providers were operating at a loss.

A total of 1,731 service providers responded to the survey. Rising electricity and gas bills, as well as meal-related expenses, had left 55% of providers operating in the red as of August, up 2.7 percentage points from the same month a year earlier. Wage increases in fiscal 2026 averaged 4.74%, falling 0.27 percentage points short of the 5.01% recorded across all industries. Seventy percent of providers said they could not raise wages any further, citing the limits of using their own funds.

The eight organizations said wages had been rising through measures such as additional payments for improving staff compensation, but the gap with other industries remained substantial. Some providers were also unable to carry out necessary repairs or disaster-prevention measures. They called for higher basic reimbursement rates and the introduction of an automatic adjustment system linking wages and payments to inflation. They also sought expanded financial assistance to offset rising food and other costs, along with stronger support for facility development.

The National Network for Community Living Support called for measures to ensure that support for people with high care needs would not be reduced in the name of prioritizing the sustainability of the system. It also sought greater operational efficiency through the use of artificial intelligence and inspections that assess the quality of services provided on the ground. The Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals called for mandatory coordination with psychiatric medical services when people with mental disabilities use disability welfare services.

The National Council of Type A Continuous Employment Support Providers called for revisions to the scoring system used to determine reimbursement rates, arguing that the imbalance between work-related activities and welfare support needed to be corrected. The Japan Spinal Cord Injury Association called for a substantial increase in the national government’s standard funding amounts for home-visit services.

Panel Chairman Shuichi Takatori said, “In fiscal 2026, there was a substantial revision of medical fees, described as the largest increase in 30 years. Taking that into account, I strongly believe we need to address inflation and improve staff treatment in a way that is comparable to the revisions to long-term care service fees.”