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Hi, it’s Mizuki!
I have been visiting companies and interviewing them to understand their policy of employment for people with disabilities. This is my research theme I will start in the US soon.
You know what…! I had an wonderful opportunity to visit Google Japan yesterday!
I was very interested in the company for a long time, but I didn’t know how to approach without any connections.
After thinking for a while…, “I should make a connection by myself if I don’t have one!” I figured out. haha.
I used LinkedIn which is like Facebook for for business people and with more professional contents.
I searched people working for Google Japan and sent a message with explanation of my situation and request.
Then…I got a reply from one of them.
(*ﾟДﾟ*) oh…
We exchanged a few messages and she arranged a meeting with me by the next morning. I was so impressed by her prompt actions!
She said she doesn’t usually check LinkedIn, but checked my message by chance. This must be fate.
This is awesome! My dream came true with 90% of luck and 10% of my hard work.
(Though, this is a really rare case. Even I receive a message once in a while in LinkedIn, but usually don’t reply at all.
People who work for a major company would get tons of messages like I sent.
You might probably take the same action after reading my post.
However please know that it is “normal” that you will not get a reply from them.)
Well, I visited Google Japan and interviewed about the employment for people with disabilities.
What I am impressed the most was that the company, leading the world, has a totally different point of view regarding people with disabilities.
Google Japan considers what they can do not only for all people with disabilities, not limited to their own employees.
The project I was really impressed is
ー intern program only for people with disabilities ー
Any disabled people who meets certain conditions by Google Japan can apply for it.
If you get an opportunity, you can work as intern up to 1 year.
In the intern program, each person is assigned to a department/team depending on what kind of skill he/she wants to develop, and set a goal with a manager.
The trainee will then work hard to achieve the goal.
After the internship, trainees will have a chance to continue working at Google Japan if their skills and experience matches what the company requires.
Of course they can go to another company where their skill can be well used, too.
The main purpose of this program is to improve skills of people with disabilities in the society, and make more people work in various occupations.
Google Japan thinks seriously how they can uses their resources for the “society”.
For the disabled people who really want to change, I highly recommend them to apply for this program. Not only improving a skill, you will get more confidence.
I would definitely apply for this If I am not going to the US. I’m so jealous people who can do this…
Intern program information (Only Google Japan)↓
gReach
https://www.google.co.jp/about/careers/lifeatgoogle/greach.html
At the end, I heard a company slogan of Google, “Do the right thing.”
One of the employees told that
“We just want to “do the right thing” for people with disabilities.”
Google Japan is really cool.
I deeply wish to encourage more and more companies which can take actions to make a better society, not only for their own interests nor profit.
To Mizuki San,
I’m an American Woman living in Zushi, in Kangawa Prefecture. Let me lintroduce myself,my name is Linda-Day-Sakamoto. I have been living in Japan for forty some years now. I’ve been using a wheelchair for about four years now and I’d like to talk to you about the social issues we people having disabilities in Japan face. I notice you wrote an article praising Japan’s new laws about people with disabilities, but Japan has been very slow to change it’s laws to suit those with disabilities whether it be physical disabilities or mental disablities. . The physical being confined to a wheelchair or being hearing or sight impeared. The mental being a person born with Down Sydrome for example, or someone suffering from Depression. There are all kinds of disabilities those we can see and those we can’t see.
I have found Japan quick to change to those living in Tokyo, but rather slow to change the farther we get from big metropolises to the Japanese countryside where those changes are almost non-exsistent, the same is true for social changes in the field of employment. In Tokyo thing are pretty good for the disabled but not in the countryside. I can give you a few examples, I have a feeling if I applied for a job at Starbucks Japan I would be discriminated against because of my age, I’m 69, and because I use a wheelchair. Just the other day I met my friend (Japanese) in Kamakura at our favorite Starbucks behind the station the one closest to the City Office. The reason we meet there is that Starbucks has a slope at its entrance so it is easy for me to navigate, but recently the shop has been remodeled and a new counter put in, but in doing so they made it almost impossible for people in wheelchairs to use the toilet. The toilet is also smaller than it was before. Kamakura needs to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics, as visitors will probably be pressed for time and it will be easier to visit Kamakura than Kyoto. Kamakura has two places that are wheelchair accessible Tsurgaoka Hachimangu and the Daibutsu, but most of the shops along Komachi Dori are wheelchair inaccessible because of stairs leading up to the shops, or the shops are so small and gifts are displayed where they can be easily knocked off, so it is impossible to browse in the shops. Thus while Japan has disability laws they haven’t been put into effect. Please if you are interested in getting others input please contact the following people Hirokazu Nagoya or Piro Racing, Oda Yukiko, Josh Gisdale of accessible Japan and ask them their opinions about how we can hold hands and make this World a better place for all people, and myself included.
Mizuki, I’m sorry I just wrote you a comment and it was late at night, Iwas tired, so I made quite a few mistake when I re-read it. I am very sorry and to think I am an English teacher, sorry!!!