Japan Press Weekly

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2018 August 22 - 28 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Central gov't padded the number of employees with disabilities to make it look like it achieved its numerical target

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Government ministries and agencies are required to employ a certain proportion of persons with disabilities by law. However, many central government offices have long padded the number of disabled they hire, it was recently learned. Similar ploys used have also come to light one after another in local governments as well. The state administration which is supposed to take the initiative in assuring disabled people have work opportunities had been lying about its employment situation.

According to the national guidelines, persons with disabilities who are subject to the relevant law should be disability certificate holders. However, the central government offices reportedly included about 3,000 people who do not have this identification in the number last year. The Labor Ministry's report shows that about 6,900 disability persons, as of last year, have been employed in the state administrative organizations. It is now highly likely that nearly half of this figure was overstated.

Some even point out that the central government offices have been making up the figure since the minimum proportion system started in 1976. Accordingly, for more than 40 years, in addition to such injustice, the central government has been depriving many persons with disabilities of job opportunities.

It is necessary to strictly carry out this system based on the Handicapped Persons' Employment Promotion Act in the first place. This law obliges the government to promote job opportunities for the disabled and also presses private entities to reach a fixed percentage of disabled on their payrolls. Not only that, the central government as an organ to take the lead in this effort boasts that it has been giving thorough guidance to all public institutions, including itself and local governments, in order to achieve the mandatory employment rate. This supposed leader, however, had been inflating the number of the disabled employed and disguising the figure in order to make itself look like it exceeded the numerical target. (e.g. 2.3% in fiscal 2018)

What is more, a bogus figure is given in a report which Japan submitted to the United Nations in 2016 in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is not a problem only at home but Japan may significantly lose the international trust in the country's policy pertaining to the disabled.

Past related article:
> JCP Koike demands probe into government ministries’ alleged falsification of disabled employed [August 19, 2018]