A law to promote the employment of disabled people has succeeded in increasing their numbers in the nation's workforce. It obligates both the government and private sectors to employ a certain number of physically and mentally disabled people. The government plans to submit a revision bill to the current Diet session to expand the scope of the law to cover people suffering from mental illnesses as well.
Although the obligatory employment of mentally ill people will start in April 2018 after a five-year grace period, the revision will play an important role in helping eliminate prejudice and discrimination against such people.
The system to promote employment of disabled people started in 1976, first covering physically disabled people. It began to cover mentally disabled people in 1998. From 2006, employers have been allowed to count mentally ill people whom they have voluntarily employed among the number of disabled people on their payrolls. The number of disabled people employed under the system has set a new record annually for nine consecutive years, reaching 380,000 in fiscal 2012.