Japanese firms have been using proxy agencies to employ people with disabilities, hiring them to work for unrelated farming projects in a move seen as a way to fulfill official disability quotas, according to a welfare ministry probe and a Kyodo News investigation.
Around 800 companies across the country have been renting farms from such agencies for approximately 5,000 workers with disabilities, with the produce often distributed to company employees instead of being sold, according to the investigations that was released on Monday.
A dozen or so agencies operate a total of 85 farms across Japan, while the majority of companies that have hired people with disabilities to work at the farms do not specialize in agriculture, they found.