Affiliations: Japan Organization for Employment of the Elderly and
Persons with Disabilities, Tokyo, Japan | University of Tsukuba, Tokyo, Japan
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Akihiko Ozawa, Vocational
Rehabilitation Counselor, Japan Organization for Employment of the Elderly and
Persons with Disabilities, New Pier Takeshiba North Tower, 1-11-1 Kaigan,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0022, Japan. Tel.: +81 3 5400 1625; Fax: +81 3 5400 1608;
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The Attitudes toward Employment of Psychiatric Disability scale
(ATEP) was developed to assess employer attitudes toward employing people with
psychiatric disability. In total, 358 employers representing fourteen Japanese
industries were surveyed by questionnaire to assess their attitudes in four
major areas: employer motivation, activity limitation, prejudice and fear, and
attention distribution. The results were categorized according to six
employment sectors derived from the fourteen classes of the Japan Standard
Industrial Classification [22]. Service sector employers faced activity
limitation due to employees with psychiatric disability less than did employers
in the construction and manufacturing sectors. As well, employers in the
wholesale, retail trade, and food and beverage sectors faced less activity
limitation than did employers in the manufacturing sector. Employers between
sixty-and-seventy years of age faced more activity limitation than did those
between thirty-and-forty years old. Employer motivation for employing people
with psychiatric disability correlates with fear, prejudice, and prior
experiences employing those with psychiatric disability. However, these factors
only partially explain employer motivation. The prospect that these findings
might assist employers is discussed in this article.
