Nikkeiren's Employment Stabilization Scheme for Disabled People - Japan

Source: Japan Institute of Labour

Since February 1999 Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers' Associations) has, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare been involved in the Employment Stabilization Scheme for Disabled People. The scheme encourages disabled people to find employment by providing a period of workplace training before actual employment.

The scheme, entrusted to Nikkeiren by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was launched to give disabled people temporary and short-term job opportunities which could lead to full-time employment. Under the scheme, firms, chiefly large business establishments, accept disabled workers for a month to give them on-the-job training. The firms also employ those who have completed the training on a trial basis over a three-month period.

The scheme is intended for disabled people who have registered as job-seekers at the Public Employment Security Offices. Coordinators at the Nikkeiren Emergency Support Center for the Employment Promotion of the Disabled and at other institutes look for business employers who wish to join the scheme. Subsidies for on-the-job training are given: ¥23,900 per trainee per month to business establishments and ¥116,700 per month to the trainees. In addition, companies which have accepted disabled workers on a trial basis are subsidized up to ¥59,000 per worker per month.

As of September 18, 2000, 3,631 business establishments throughout the 47 administrative districts of the country have asked that 5,167 places be filled by trainees, and 4,025 workers have participated in on-the-job training; 3,622 trainees have completed their program. Of those completing the program, 2,896 have been taken up as employees on a trial basis, and 1,990 have already completed this trial employment. Disabled workers who have obtained actual employment contracts totalled 1,679. The figures show that 80 percent of participants in the trainee scheme have actually gone on to trial employment, while 84.4 percent of those who completed their trial employment have actually been employed.

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