Expanding Employment for People with Mental Disabilities and Supporting Career Advancement
Established SUPERYARD with Hakuhodo and Launched Business
- Providing Shared Office Space with Reasonable Considerations and Optimal Work Settings -

April 5, 2023
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
SUPERYARD Co., Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan, April 5, 2023 – Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., a leading global real estate company headquartered in Tokyo, in collaboration with Hakuhodo Incorporated, announced today the launch of operations from April of SUPERYARD Co., Ltd., which was established in February to expand employment at companies for people with mental disabilities and to support their career advancement after they have been employed.

SUEPRYARD will provide shared offices equipped with environments showing reasonable considerations for people with mental disabilities and utilize Mitsui Fudosan’s knowledge of working styles and offices to accommodate sensory sensitivities and more. Then, using methods developed together with industrial physicians and specialists, we identify duties that people with disabilities can perform. In addition, using the know-how cultivated in Hakuhodo’s advertising business to pick out best aspects and inform people about them, we will provide a service that eliminates the concerns employing companies have by asking each person with a disability to perform duties that match their unique attributes.

■Business Environment Surrounding People with Disabilities

Amid expanding ESG investment and growing attention being paid in recent years to human capital, one of the factors used to judge investment, companies are being required to take a proactive approach to challenges related to human resources, the source of enhancing corporate value and sustainable growth.
Companies in the Japanese private sector have been struggling to increase the number of people with disabilities that they employ, and even with many companies failing to achieve the legally mandated employment rate for people with disabilities, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has decided to raise the legally mandated employment rate by stages to 2.7% of the workforce by 2026. Even so, it is not possible to say that there are sufficient employment opportunities for people with mental disabilities. That is because companies are not capable of sufficiently providing conditions that enable such people to thrive, because of lack of experience in appropriate assignment and requests for work, and in creating the right environment. There are still few examples of successful employment records and there needs to be improvements in various aspects.

■Service Details

The service will be a new method combining conventional employment of people with disabilities and the following five points.

Click illustration to enlarge

1. Human resource recruitment will be conducted in collaboration with welfare organizations such as employment transition support offices to prepare people with disabilities who want to work.
2. Employment is matched through practical training that confirms the attributes of disabilities and suitability of the person with the disability for duties.
3. Duties assigned to people are taken from the company’s main operations to suit the individual attributes of each person with a disability with a unique scheme.
4. Work environments are offices prepared to accommodate the attributes of each and every person with a disability.
5. After employment, people with disabilities are supported by full-time staff working in collaboration with industrial physicians and employment transition support offices.

When hiring, we will consult with specialists to determine what sort of duties should be assigned, and then introduce* the appropriate human resources. After employment, we will support people, setting them up in a shared office with equipment that makes it easy for people with mental disabilities to work and with full-time staff so that they can work with peace of mind. Companies giving reasonable consideration to people with disabilities and asking them to perform appropriate duties will lead to people with disabilities continuing to work, and as a result build trust within the companies employing them, enabling the people to aim for career advancement by developing their capabilities and expanding their duties.

* Human resource introductions will be made following approval from a fee-charging job introduction business.

< Reasonable Considerations >
Steps are taken at the time of hiring to ensure that people have equal opportunity, regardless of whether they have a disability or not.
Following employment, companies take steps to ensure equal treatment of people regardless of whether they have a disability or not, or to improve situations that are obstacles preventing those with a disability from effectively exercising their abilities.
A partial revision to the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Act) to be enacted in April 2024 will change to make it a legal obligation for private business operators to provide reasonable considerations instead of the requirement to strive to do so.

< Reference Materials >
Currently, of the 9.37 million*1 people with a disability in Japan, only 613,000*2 are employed by private companies. By welfare notebook category, only 109,000 people*2 with a mental disability are employed, creating a situation where people with a mental or development disability find it difficult to get opportunities to work. Looking at companies, meanwhile, shows that as many as 51.3%*3 have not attainted the legally mandated employment rate for people with disabilities. Furthermore, an MHLW study group is discussing whether to expand the limit to 2.7%*3 in the future.
(Reference sources)

• 1 2018 data from the Annual Report on Government Measures for Persons with Disabilities 2022
• 2 MHLW, “Aggregate results of the Status of Employment of Persons with Disabilities for FY2022”
  https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_29949.html (Japanese language only)
• 3 MHLW, Materials from the Sectorial Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, Labor Policy Council, January 18, 2023
  https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/shingi/shingi-rousei_126985.html (Japanese language only)

■Comment from SUPERYARD Co., Ltd. Representative Director and President, Yusuke Omasu

■The Mitsui Fudosan Group’s Business Proposal System, MAG!C

This system was created during fiscal 2018 to reboot the Mitsui Fudosan Group’s DNA of Innovation and for the Companywide promotion to innovate the real estate business. In principle, those who propose a business are given responsibility for it to move ahead. SUPERYARD is a MAG!C business.

■Mitsui Fudosan Group’s Contribution to SDGs

https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/esg_csr/
The Mitsui Fudosan Group aims for a society that enriches both people and the planet under the principles of coexist in harmony with society, link diverse values and achieve a sustainable society, and advances business with an awareness of the environment (E), society (S) and governance (G), thus promoting ESG management. By further accelerating its ESG management, the Group will realize Society 5.0, which the Japanese government has been advocating, and contribute significantly to achieving the SDGs. Additionally, the Group formulated the following Group guidelines related to “Realize a Decarbonized Society” and “Diversity & Inclusion Promotion” in November 2021. The Mitsui Fudosan Group will continue to work toward solving social issues through neighborhood creation.

[References] Group Action Plan to Realize a Decarbonized Society
https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/news/2021/1124/
Diversity & Inclusion Promotion Declaration and Initiative Policy
https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/news/2021/1129_02/

* The initiatives covered in this press release are contributing to three of the UN’s SDGs.