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On March 19, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the third meeting of the Ministerial Council on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service, at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, a discussion was held on the further enhancing and strengthening of measures based on the Basic Policy on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“Even as we were promoting initiatives aimed at creating a society in which all citizens are dynamically engaged – a society where everyone, including those with disabilities and those without, can fully demonstrate their capabilities –  it came to light last year that many of the Administrative Organs of the State have continuously failed to meet the legal employment quota for persons with disabilities for many years. This is truly regrettable, and we must repent and reflect deeply this once again.
 
In response to this case, we decided on the basic policy at this ministerial council in last October, and have worked on meeting the legal employment quota for persons with disabilities swiftly, and expanding the opportunities for persons with disabilities to play an active role, in addition to implementing a series of measures to prevent the recurrence of this case. 
 
As reported by Minister Nemoto earlier, we will submit, to this Diet session, a bill to amend the Act on Employment Promotion etc. of Persons with Disabilities, which includes items such as collection of reports. In addition to that, today we compiled a set of government’s responses; we must thoroughly work on implementing them in unity with a view that these measures will further enrich and strengthen our initiatives based on the Basic Policy.
 
Going forward, I ask all the ministers to exert every effort to expand opportunities for those with disabilities so that they can play an active role making full use of their enthusiasm and talents.”