It was first established in 1960 as a moral obligation for employers, and became a legal requirement in 1976 (Matsui, 1998). The main features of the policies currently in place to support the labour market participation of people with disabilities appear in the Basic Programme for Persons with Disabilities, which runs from FY 2003 to FY 2012. In addition, already in 2003 MHLW formulated a Five-Year Plan for increasing the number of people with disabilities who can find a job through the PESOs (JILPT, 2006). However, the employment of people with severe physical or intellectual disabilities counts double in the calculation of the fulfilment of the quota.