Research on Economy And Social Exclusion Shogai-sha no Nichijo / Keizai-Katsudo Chosa, Chosa-hokoku-sho (Report on Follow-up Survey on the Daily Lives and Economic Activities of People with Disabilities)

In this report, I outline the statistical findings and survey materials from a preliminary and a main survey, two parts of larger studies. I conducted the preliminary survey, “Survey on the Daily Lives and Economic Activities of People with Disabilities,” in July 2009 to gather data on the lives of people with disabilities. The survey formed a core part of a larger study of mine, “A General Sociological Study on the Social and Economic Lives of People with Disabilities” (a Research on Economy and Disability project funded by MEXT’s Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research; 19GS0101]). I conducted the main survey, “Follow-up Survey on the Daily Lives and Economic Activities of People with Disabilities,” in 2016, and it formed a core part of a larger study of mine entitled “Economic Theory and Empirical Study concerning Social Disabilities” (a Research on Economy and Social Exclusion project funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [S] 24223002).
 
I conducted the main survey to obtain comprehensive data about the economic lives of people with disabilities and to derive solutions from this data for the problems they face. In particular, I focused on the daily life conditions of disabled people, including employment issues. I surveyed the participants in detail about both employment issues and general matters of daily life, believing that this approach would reveal how economically independent the participants were and highlight the issues they faced.
 
For both the 2009 preliminary survey and the 2016 main survey, I used panel data (from the same sample in both cases), as I believed doing so would help me identify more accurately the individual-specific effects of recent institutional and environmental changes, which in turn would highlight more clearly the issues to be addressed.
 
I could not have conducted the two surveys without the support of disability organizations and many individuals, including members of each organization. Hereunder, I state the organizations that cooperated in both surveys, shown in no particular order:
 
・Organizations for persons with disabilities
All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People
Japan Federation of the Blind
The Japan Deafblind Association
Japan Council on Independent Living Centers
Spinal Injuries Japan
Japan Spinal Cord Foundation
Association of Friends with Osteogenesis Imperfecta
 
・Organizations for deaf-mute people
Japanese Federation of the Deaf
 
・Organizations for people with mental disabilities
Aomori Human Rights Recovery
National Federation for People with Mental Disabilities
 
・Organizations for people with intellectual disability
National Federation for Learning Support
Japan Down Syndrome Society
 
I sincerely hope that the findings contained in this report will be of value to individuals involved in disability and other social or employment welfare policies as well as to anyone interested in this topic.
 

(Written by MATSUI Akihiko, Professor, Graduate School of Economics / 2018)