IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jdisab/v5y2025i3p62-d1697996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Current Status and Issues of the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Rural Areas of Japan: A Survey from Business Owners’ Perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Kazuaki Maebara

    (Graduate School of Education, Akita University, Akita 010-0904, Japan)

  • Kanae Yamaguchi

    (Department of Education and Human Studies, Akita University, Akita 010-0904, Japan)

  • Kazuma Ikeda

    (Special Support School, Akita University, Akita 010-0904, Japan)

  • Hiroki Takahashi

    (Special Support School, Akita University, Akita 010-0904, Japan)

Abstract

This study examines the employment of persons with disabilities in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural Japan. An online survey of 40 SME owners was conducted to assess their understanding, experiences, and challenges in employing persons with disabilities. The results indicate that many SMEs lack awareness of employment systems, but those with prior contact experience demonstrate greater understanding. Key challenges include difficulties in job creation, workplace acceptance, and inadequate environments. To address these issues, it is essential to enhance information on job creation, share successful cases, and establish mentoring systems for knowledge exchange between SMEs. These findings provide insights for policy development and practical strategies to promote the employment of persons with disabilities in SMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Kazuaki Maebara & Kanae Yamaguchi & Kazuma Ikeda & Hiroki Takahashi, 2025. "Current Status and Issues of the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Rural Areas of Japan: A Survey from Business Owners’ Perspectives," Disabilities, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-16, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jdisab:v:5:y:2025:i:3:p:62-:d:1697996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7272/5/3/62/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7272/5/3/62/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jdisab:v:5:y:2025:i:3:p:62-:d:1697996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.