March 19, 2026

Japanese Communist Party member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Yonekura Haruna, at a Metropolitan Assembly Welfare Committee meeting on March 18, demanded that the Tokyo government drastically increase the amount of its disability welfare allowance from the current 15,500 yen per month and expand the scope of recipients.

Yonekura asked about the percentage of people with physical, intellectual, or mental disabilities who earn less than two million yen annually. She also asked the same question about those with intractable diseases. In response, Metropolitan Government Welfare Bureau official Kajino Kyoko said that the percentages are 57% for physically disabled persons, 76% for intellectually disabled, 76% for mentally disabled, and 48% for rare disease patients.

Yonekura said that of the 720,000 people who hold a disability certificate, only approximately 100,000 receive the allowance. In addition, she pointed out that mentally challenged persons and rare disease patients are excluded from receiving the allowance. She urged the Tokyo government to grant them allowance eligibility.

A survey which a nationwide organization of small-sized community workshops for disabled people, Kyosaren, conducted in 2024 found that about 80% of persons with disabilities live in relative poverty.