Finding out about Social Care in Japan

Here’s Kate’s latest blog as she continues her mission, organised by NCVO, to find out more about social care in Japan… 

Our group at the factory speaking to staff members with disabilities working from home

Institutional visit one – factory for making equipment for earthquake disaster with approx. 50% of the staff working there with learning disabilities.

An example of good practice particularly with flexible working patterns for people with more complex needs being trained in their homes and given equipment to work from home.

Today we visited a brand new factory where they make earthquake emergency kits with things such as long life water bottles, helmets, and vaccum packed foods. We learnt that in Japan people with disabilities can work as many hours that the can to up to the full 8 hour days like the rest of the staff teams and their benefits from the government work on a sliding scale so if they can only work for 20 hours for example, the government will top up their benefits to make it up to a full time salary so they have enough money to live off.

I spoke to the staff working from home over Skype and asked them what it was like working for the factory? As all the questions had been directed to the manager in the room previously both staff members faces lit up when I asked them a question directly and they said working made them happy and they were grateful not to have to deal with the commute to work as wheelchair users, and they liked the work they were given. This was an example of excellent practice and I was impressed with how much the company did to include employees who were disabled.

Long life water bottle that will last until 2021 and vacuum packed rice crackers.

Freeze dried potato salad – incredibly

My friend Liam hands over the story of stay up late to the manager of the factory!

Find out more about Kate’s trip here

Read the next instalment here