Navigating Disability-related (Care) Needs in Japan

Hi everyone,

So, the tl;dr is that I saw a dream job to apply to in Japan, and I applied to it and now I’ve been invited to a (first-round, telephone) interview I need to make sense of whether the move is feasible. I would love to be able to do this job… but…

I am a disabled person who is in receipt of social care through my state health and social care insurance. I, roughly, receive about 10-12 hours of care a week. These assistants help with fairly mandatory and basic tasks, but really can be summarised as “morning assistance” (e.g. showering) and “home assistance” (e.g. changing bedding, laundry). Further, I have various adapted elements of my home, that has been subsidised by the state: an adapted bathroom (a roll-in shower instead of a bath) and a ceiling track hoist. (I also have a ramp to get into this house but that’s neither here nor there as I would likely move into an apartment).

The pay for this academic role is ok, (it’s more than I get in my current country, substantially), but, frankly, I know little about the expected pay for care workers in Japan and even less about finding and adapting a home. Converting what my current assistants are paid from my currency, it would be about 1.250.000 yen per year (at 12hr/week).

Whether the move is economically viable depends, a great deal, on whether I would need to pay for the entire cost myself, but where I am there are various tax deductions for disability-related services (for ex.). So, my first questions are effectively based around this care element. All of the information I find online is based around over 40s and over 65s.

Regarding the question of finding I home, I have browsed numerous house/apartment listing websites (unlike tax my japanese is about enough for this), almost none of these homes would be immediately suitable for me. For example, the average bathroom is a narrow closet. As, such, any building would need to be adapted. I’m less concerned about the cost of this, as the role is a 5-year contract, so once it is set up, it is done. Neverthless, are adaptations done through healthcare insurance (as it is in some countries) or some other funding stream? Or, again, would it be entirely private? This job offers a housing allowance, would that cover this kind of thing?

To summarise into questions, then:

1. How do Japanese disabled people pay for care? (e.g. is this through health insurance) Is this route available to non-national disabled people?
2. If so, what is the expected contribution? If not, is my estimation of the cost about right, or am I missing some kind of tax-deduction (or other associated benefit)?
3. How are adaptations to housing performed and funded? Further, am I missing something in how to search for bathrooms that are wheelchair friendly (“barrier-free” gets much better listings but still insufficient in terms of toileting)?
4. Finally, I want to ask if these are things that employers might assist with. I’m cautious about bringing up disability in this regard, though it is fairly obvious I am disabled, discrimination does still happen and it’s best not to lead in with these things. So, is this worth discussing with the potential employer? If so, when?

I appreciate this question is a little specialist compared to other questions, but naturally these are difficult things to establish as it relies on vocabulary that I’ve never really needed before (both previous times I have been to Japan on vacation, I went with my Japanese ex-fiance who dealt with things that didn’t crop up in my Japanese classes (like all disability related conversations)).