Market Overview

The market size for self-reliance support services for disabled persons for FY2023 which comprises total five categories (Employment transfer support/job placement support, Job retention support (A style/B style), Recruitment, Employment support in agriculture or in the form of satellite office, and Child development support/ (after-school) daycare centers for children with developmental disabilities) has risen by 10.2% from the previous fiscal year to 1,619,200 million yen, based on the sales at businesses. Of five categories mentioned above, “Employment transfer support/job placement support”, “Job retention support (A style/B style)”, and “Child development support/ (after-school) daycare centers for children with developmental disabilities” are the welfare services geared to individuals with disabilities. Therefore, more than 90% of the market size for these three categories is paid at public expense.

Although there are challenges in each of five categories in the market, the market size for all five categories is on the rise. In particular, the service for "employment support in agriculture or in the form of satellite office" has maintained high growth rates. Against the backdrop of gradual escalation in legal employment rate of disabled persons mandated to companies, the market of the services to support individuals with disabilities for employment keeps on expanding. (The latest legal employment rate for persons with disabilities has been raised to 2.5% in April 2024, which means that companies with 40 or more employees are obliged to employ at least one disabled person according to the number of employees.) Users of "child development support/ (after-school) daycare centers for children with developmental disabilities" are also growing in number (*1), because of increase in children with developmental disabilities (*2) and in service providers.

*1) Source: “Survey of Social Welfare Institutions” by Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare.
*2) Source: “Reference materials for advisory council” by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Noteworthy Topics

Increased Launch of Facilities for Employment Transfer Support by Private Businesses Has Led to Fiercer Competitions

For employment transfer support, as a result of concentration of facility launches in major metropolitan cities by private companies, severe competition has been in place, with some businesses finding difficulty in attracting customers. In addition, the cost rises such as for manpower and rent and soaring energy costs have become the issue.

In such an environment, private businesses operating employee transfer support offices have come to pursue the customer base that has had no access before by expanding the training courses that provide necessary training to improve bodily functions or viability aiming for disabled individuals to lead self-reliant lives or social lives, in addition to enhancement of customer attraction through leveraging each of companies’ strength.

Future Outlook

The market size for self-reliance support services for disabled persons (total 5 categories) for FY2024, based on the sales at businesses, is projected to increase by 9.5% from the preceding fiscal year to 1,773,200 million yen. This continuous estimated growth owes to high demand remains for services to support employment of persons with disabilities due to elevated target employment rate in April 2024 as well as an increasing number of users for "child development support/ (after-school) daycare centers for children with developmental disabilities".

Incidentally, despite the employment rate for disabled individuals as well as the number of those disabled employed are on the rise due to escalated target legal employment rate, about half the companies are still failing to achieve the rate (*3), and many of companies are not able to cater to escalation of legal target employment rate. To expand employment of persons with disabilities, it is necessary first for the society to widely accept and understand employment of disabled individuals, and the significance of the initiatives will further be elevated. As for "child development support/ (after-school) daycare centers for children with developmental disabilities", though launch of facilities by private businesses is rapidly expanding, those service operators without differentiating the services is likely to lose the competition in the future, as waning population caused by decreasing numbers of children is inevitable.  

*3) Source: “2023 Aggregated Results on Employment of Persons with Disabilities” by MHLW

Research Outline