Japan's work-related welfare policy for persons with severe disabilities: negative effects of wage increase

In 2005, Japan enacted the Act of Independence Support for Persons with Disabilities. The act regulated those three workshop systems. Before the act's enforcement, sheltered workshops were established based on the disability category: physical, intellectual, and mental disability. These workshops were established to provide opportunities for PWDs to work based on the thought that all individuals can work, no matter how severe their disabilities may be. The workshops also provided a space where PWDs could visit and stay during the daytime.

In our presentation, we focus on the sheltered workshop B, which is mainly for PWDs who are considered as most difficult to be employed in the general labor market. The "low wage" of sheltered workshops has been a well-known problem for decades. Also, the "general employment" has been positioned as if it were an ultimate goal for everyone. With that, in 2018, Japan revised its work-related welfare policy, prioritizing "transition to general employment" and "wage increase," and its service remuneration system. This change impacted the remuneration for sheltered workshop B.

Thus, this study provides PWDs' economic situation in Japan by explaining its public pension and benefits systems to consider the issues of the life support systems for PWDs. It is crucial to increase PWD's income in any way, but the policy that replaced the "PWD in poverty" problem with the "low wage" of sheltered workshops may seal the real Japanese welfare system problem.

We reviewed the records and materials of the service remuneration committee, referred preceding study or investigation, and conducted interviews with the service management of sheltered workshops B to explore the impact of such change in the policy for PWDs.Our analysis suggests that the policy change does not necessarily contribute to the PWD's financial condition. The policymakers state, "The more money PWD earn, the more motivated they are to get a job in the labor market." However, preceding research found that the sheltered workshops mainly focusing on "wage increase" gained lower users' satisfaction. It means that the users of sheltered workshops B have diverse needs; some think much of wage, and others do not. To satisfy such diverse needs, it is more important for sheltered workshops to provide various services not limited to "work for a wage."