Are there places that can help you or your relatives find employment when you are ready to return to work after quitting your job and devoting yourself to treatment due to cancer?
I myself am not confident that I will be able to support my family if I don’t work yet.
If I have cancer and quit my job to focus on treatment, and if it is difficult to return to work afterwards due to the loss of income, it will be difficult to make the decision to quit my job.
If your cancer progresses during this time, you may not know what you are doing.
In this article, we will examine how people who quit their jobs to focus on their treatment and are ready to return to work find new employment. We have looked into this issue.
About Employment Support
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) website has a page on employment and labor called “Employment Support Project for Long-term Treatment Patients (Project for Employment Support Measures for Cancer Patients, etc.)” that describes the support.
(The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare seems to be providing employment support for people undergoing long-term treatment.)
(The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare seems to be providing employment support for people undergoing long-term treatment.
(Specialized counselors do not seem to be stationed at all Hello Work throughout Japan, so you should look for a location near your area where a counselor is available.)
Here is a list of Hello Work offices that support this service.
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11600000/001260191.pdf (cited from: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)
However, only about 5,100 people have found employment through this system 。。。。
This is a small number.
Every year, the number of people who get cancer in Japan is about 1 million.
Although many of them do not quit their jobs and continue to work, I still felt that this number is quite small.
It is highly likely that this support service itself is not recognized in the first place (I also learned about it for the first time today).
I thought that the government needs to focus more on “cancer,” which is said to be a national disease of Japan.
I believe that this situation will lead to a negative chain of events, in which a person with cancer will not be able to quit his or her job, the cancer will progress, and as a result, the person will not be able to live long.
What does the law say?
Legally, you do not have to quit your job just because you have cancer.
The December 2008 amendment to the Basic Act on Cancer Control stipulates that “businesses must make efforts to continue employment of workers who have cancer,” and that companies are obligated to make efforts to support the employment of employees who have cancer.
In fact, the number of people working while undergoing treatment is increasing every year.
With early detection and treatment, more and more people are able to live and work with cancer through treatment that is less stressful on the body.
*Of course, there are many people who quit their jobs because they are physically unable to continue working.
Real Issues with Treatment and Work
This section is about the problems that people with cancer face in balancing work and treatment.
Financial problems”: The problem of not being able to work and being able to afford the high cost of treatment.
Problems with where to go for advice.” ”I want to balance work and treatment, but I don’t know where to go for advice.
Inability to obtain understanding from the workplace”: situation in which the patient is forced to quit the company due to lack of understanding from the workplace and superiors.
Problems related to the way I work”: I want to work as much as I can while consulting with my physical condition.
It is clear that there are many problems that you are facing.
Here are some other examples of the problems that many of you have when you are working and undergoing treatment.
- High cost of treatment, not knowing when you need to pay for treatment or how much it will cost in total
- Inability to work flexibly according to your health condition and treatment status (working hours, working days, working place,,,)
- Concern that personnel evaluation may be lowered while undergoing treatment
- Difficulty in commuting due to side effects of treatment or anti-cancer drugs
- Difficulty in talking to people at work about the illness and treatment
- Lack of understanding in the workplace about working while undergoing treatment
- Income will decrease by changing the way of working
- Want to balance work and treatment, but do not have or do not know where to go for advice
- Lack of paid leave and want to do treatment but can’t take leave 、、、、
- Everyone has many problems.
Companies also lose important human resources.
Recently, the number of employees suffering from cancer has been increasing as the retirement age of companies has also been growing due to the declining birthrate and aging population.
In the future, this number will increase even more, so it is considered a good idea for companies to take countermeasures as early as possible.
Companies do not want to lose employees with know-how and experience.
It would be very damaging for a company to lose such employees due to cancer.
Most Japanese companies are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and many of them may not be able to replace their employees.
It is precisely because they are such small and medium-sized companies that they may need to think ahead.
Summary
When I was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to continue working, it was a good opportunity for me to learn how difficult the current Japanese system and company systems are.
I was able to reconfirm that it is necessary to research this kind of information and prepare in various ways before getting cancer.
