Article 46Plans for General Employers to Hire Qualifying Disabled Persons

①On finding it to be necessary to do so in order to facilitate the employment of qualifying disabled persons, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may order an employer that employs a number of qualifying disabled workers that is less than the legally mandated number of workers with disabilities (other than an employer that constitutes a specified cooperative or association or a specified employer associated with the certification referred to in paragraph (1) of the preceding Article; hereinafter the same applies in this Article and the following Article) to draw up a plan, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, for hiring qualifying disabled persons in order to bring the number of qualifying disabled workers up to at least the legally mandated number of workers with disabilities.

②The provisions of Article 45-2, paragraphs (4) through (6) apply mutatis mutandis to the calculation of the number of qualifying disabled workers referred to in the preceding paragraph.

③To apply the provisions of paragraph (1) to a parent employer or related parent employer, workers that the relevant subsidiary and the relevant related company employ are deemed to be workers employed solely by the parent employer, and workers that the relevant related subsidiaries employ are deemed to be workers employed solely by the related parent employer.

④Having drawn up a plan as referred to in paragraph (1), an employer must submit this to the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The same applies if the employer has made changes to the plan.

⑤If the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare finds the plan referred to in paragraph (1) to be extremely inappropriate, the Minister may recommend that the employer that drew up the plan make changes to it.

⑥On finding it to be especially necessary to do so, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare may give an employer that has drawn up a plan as referred to in paragraph (1) recommendations as to the proper implementation of that plan.