September 20, 2009

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Nagatsuma Akira at a news conference on September 19 announced that the new government will repeal the “self-support assistance law for disabled persons” and instead will create a new system as pledged by the Democratic Party of Japan during the election campaign.

The “self-support” law, enacted in 2006 requiring disabled persons to pay in principle 10 percent of the cost for the social services they receive, has been criticized because it forces the more seriously handicapped to pay more for their services in the guise of “self-support.”

The Japanese Communist Party has consistently opposed this law since before it came into effect, and has been cooperating with the handicapped to establish a new system to guarantee their rights to decent lives.
- Akahata, September 20, 2009