Govt to Raise Required Employment Rate for Disabled Workers to 2.7%

Jiji Press

11:41 JST, January 19, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press)—A Japanese labor ministry panel will propose to boost the legally required employment rate for disabled people at companies to 2.7% from 2.3% at present, it was learned Wednesday.

With an aim to secure more opportunities to work for people with disabilities, a subcommittee of the Labor Policy Council, which advises the labor minister, discussed at a meeting the same day plans to revise related regulations after deciding on details of the employment rate hike proposal.

The Law to Promote the Employment of Disabled People obliges companies and other institutions to keep the proportion of workers with disabilities among all employees above a certain rate, which is reviewed every five years.

The panel plans to propose keeping the required employment rate unchanged at 2.3% in fiscal 2023 and raising the rate in stages to 2.5% in fiscal 2024 and 2.7% in fiscal 2026.

The required rates are also planned to be increased gradually for workers at central and local governments.

Currently, the required employment rate is set at 2.3% for private firms. Companies with a workforce of 43.5 employees or more are obliged to hire people with disabilities. The rate stands at 2.6% for central and local governments and 2.5% for prefectural education boards.