Don't rob handicapped people of jobs -- Akahata editorial, December 3 (excerpts)

Dismissals of handicapped people are worse than ever. The number of dismissals of handicapped people reported to the public job placement office during fiscal 2001 is a record 4,017. During the first six months of fiscal 2002, 1,658 handicapped workers were fired, up 8 percent from the same period in 2001.

Target of restructuring

About 253,000 people are now being employed by private companies. Corporate restructuring is being targeted at these handicapped workers.

Restructuring is carried out by ignoring human rights. Workers who refuse to change company affiliation are isolated, workers age 50 or over are urged to retire and be re-hired at lower wages, and those who reject early retirement are subject to distant transfer. Handicapped people are no exception to such restructuring.

Handicapped people have the right to work without discrimination. Corporations have social responsibility to provide jobs for them.

From the outset, employment of handicapped people is very low in Japan. Law mandates private companies with more than 56 employees to employ handicapped people equivalent to 1.8 percent of its workforce. The actual ratio of employment of handicapped people is 1.49 percent.

Companies failing to achieve the set target account for 56 percent of all companies, and three out of four major corporations fail to comply.

The employment of handicapped people is far behind that in western countries. Germany and France set the legal rate of employment of the handicapped at 6 percent, more than three times that of Japan. The United States and Britain have laws banning discrimination against the handicapped, and discriminating against them in employment is rigorously prohibited.

A reason for the failure to achieve the ratio in Japan is that the names of failing companies are not publicized. Corporations with 300 regular employees or more can offset the failure by paying money for promoting the employment of the handicapped.

Of the over 34,400 companies failing to comply in fiscal 2001, not a single company's name has been made public.

Government's role

The government must take the initiative to increase jobs for handicapped people by publicizing the names of the intransigent companies and order them to take steps to employ the handicapped so that they meet the legal requirement. (end)