The Wall Street Journal's China blog ChinaRealTimeReport has a post up about a Chinese restauranteur's answer to tightening labor conditions and the incresing mobility of workers: hiring staff with learning disabilities (E).
In this, the Chinese entrepreneur is well behind Japan in this innovation. The food preparation business, with its emphasis on repetitive, unchallenging tasks, is probably the major employer of Japanese adults with learning disabilities. It gives persons that would otherwise be unemployable a job, a salary and often independence. It certainly also reduces the burdens on the parents and the state, which would otherwise be charged with entertaining and coping with these otherwise difficult to mainstream human beings...and given the almost total absence of the practice of amniocentesis for decades and its rarity even now, the population of intellectually challenged is not insignificant.
Even major chains have experimented with introducing those with learning disabilities into their workforce. I remember the shock and then admiration I felt at a visit to my local McDonalds when I noticed that a young woman with Down's Syndrome was taking my order. The experiment seemingly did not work, for the girl did not work at the outlet very long -- but it was a worthy effort by an organization whose scale and output volume tend to consign it to the category of unfeeling corporate behemoth.
So when you hear in the business press about how inefficient the food preparation business is in Japan, keep in mind that it provides work not only to those living in the economically bereft hinterlands but also for those who would otherwise be denied the dignity of a job.
A guide to Japan’s general election
5 weeks ago
3 comments:
Very interesting post.
I wonder if this happened largely on the initiative of the food companies, or in response to prodding from social services workers.
I once knew a man who was a principal at a special education high school in Japan, and he said it was extremely difficult to find jobs for his graduates...
TheStrawMan -
As far as I understand, there are government incentives, including tax incentives, encouraging companies to hire workers with learning disabilities or physical handicaps. For food preparation companies, where many of the jobs are low-paying, arduous, repetitive and without opportunities for advancement, the employment of those with learning disabilities would provide the companies with a much more stable labor force (as the Chinese example states) than they could otherwise recruit.
"So when you hear in the business press about how inefficient the food preparation business is in Japan, keep in mind that it provides work not only to those living in the economically bereft hinterlands but also for those who would otherwise be denied the dignity of a job."
Yes - the same with the diminished traditional "labyrinthine" and "inefficient" Japanese distribution system that relied on mom and pop family-run outlets on every corner. As in the US, these small wholesale and retail outlets allowed fuller employment and dignity at many intrinsic levels; fostered a personal small proprietor commercial culture that supported social solidarity.
Post a Comment