Abstract
This article is intended to give some foreseeable recommendations by analyzing our survey results about the present situation of the employment of the physically handicapped. The objective of this survey is all companies in N Prefecture whose size of enterprize have already reached the legal employment rate (1.5%) as laid down by the Law concerning Promotion of Employment of the Physically Handicapped in 1976, which means the companies with over 67 full-time employees. Some findings related to the prospect of the employment of the physically handicapped are as follows; 1) The companies, whose attitude towards the employment of the physically handicapped is most positive, are (i) by industry (medium groups), finance/insuarance-71.4% and construcion-66.1%. (ii) by size of enterprise, 1000 persons over'-62.5%, and '500 to 999 persons'-33.3%. 2) The companies which have already achieved the legal employment rate (1.5%) are lightly more interested than the ones which have not. 3) The companies which have already employed the physically handicapped and also the ones with the larger number of the physically handicapped employees show their positive attitude. 4) The companies which have manegerial problems with such employees are less keen to employ them. With these findings, we presume that there might be 'a sort of mechanism of the employment of the physically handicapped', which is that once any company has experience in the employment of the physically handicapped and the more the number of such employees increases, the more positive is its attitude towards the employment of the physically handicapped. We also suspect this could be caused partly by the companies being able to succeed in reaching a certain standard of physical arrangements for such employees at their farms or offices, and partly by the companies being able to overcome the prejudices against the physically handicapped and to appreciate their abilities. As a conclusion, it can be suggested that the more physically handicapped with good vocational training go into the labour marcket and enjoy fair opportunities of employment, they will be able to be a real power in paving the way for future general employment of the physically handicapped.
