The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) announced five companies because the employment of persons with disabilities required by law is insufficient, and there is no improvement despite the government's recommendations.

The Act on Employment Promotion of Persons with Disabilities requires companies to employ persons with disabilities at a certain rate, which is currently 2.3% or more.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) requires companies that do not employ enough people with disabilities to create plans to achieve the results and recommends that they implement them appropriately, but if they do not comply, the names of the companies can be made public, and on the 29th, five companies were announced in accordance with the law.

Of these, three companies
,
▽ Tokyo real estate brokerage company "Town Housing",
▽ Tokyo building maintenance company "Sealex" ▽ Hiroshima miscellaneous goods sales company "Sunpaw Create"
were announced in December for the same reason. After that, it was "re-announced" because there was no improvement.

The other two companies
announced were Boardriders Japan, a sports-related merchandise retailer in Tokyo, and Verite,
a jewelry retailer in Yokohama.

Each company says, "We would like to take it seriously and work to improve the employment of people with disabilities."

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as of June last year, the percentage of companies that have achieved the employment rate of people with disabilities was 5.3%, less than half.

The employment rate of persons with disabilities is set to be raised to 12.2% in three years, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will continue to provide guidance for improvement and encourage companies to respond by expanding subsidies.

Comments from 5 published companies

The five companies whose names were announced commented as follows.

▽ Town Housing said, "We are re-publicizing and consider the employment of people with disabilities to be an issue, and although we are strengthening our efforts such as establishing offices for the employment of people with disabilities, we would like to take it seriously and work for further improvement."

CEALEX said, "We take what has been announced seriously and will strive for improvement."

Sunpaw Create said, "We were able to hire four people with disabilities, but we have not achieved the employment rate, and we are currently recruiting. We will continue to work on the employment of people with disabilities."

Boardriders Japan said, "We take the guidance from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare seriously and are working to improve the situation."

Verite said, "Due to the impact of the Corona disaster, it was difficult to promote the employment of people with disabilities as much as we would like, and we will take the announcement seriously and continue to make efforts."

Expert: "New measures are needed"

Misato Horie, director of WEL'S TOKYO, a support center for employment and living support for people with disabilities that supports companies in hiring people with disabilities, said that new measures are needed to address the need for some companies that are seen as reluctant to hire people with disabilities. I think it would be good to promote a system in which companies are evaluated."

In addition, he said that companies are facing the issue of what kind of work they want people with disabilities to work on, saying, "There is a limit to how much we can devote to fixed clerical work from the beginning with the idea that people with disabilities can only do this kind of work. We need to increase the number of jobs we can do."