Esports programs in Japan help disabled people find employment

Competitive video gaming is creating new pathways to employment for people with disabilities in Japan. At a May tournament at Tokyo Big Sight, 32-year-old Shunya Hatakeyama, who has muscular dystrophy, competed in a fighting game using a controller operated with his chin and a hand-held switch. Nearby, Naoya Kitamura, also 32 and totally blind, navigated his character by relying on differences in the pitch and type of in-game sounds while wearing headphones and a blindfold.

The event was organized with the involvement of ePARA, a company based in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, that runs barrier-free esports competitions open to participants regardless of disability, age, or gender. Founded in 2016 by Daiki Kato, 45, the company also uses esports as part of employment support programs, inviting corporate representatives to observe participants compete in order to demonstrate abilities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Kato, a graduate of Hosei University Law School who previously worked as a court official and in the welfare sector, said he started ePARA after meeting a person with a disability who spoke three languages but was entrusted only with simple work earning a monthly salary of 80,000 yen. As of June, ePARA employed seven people, four of whom have disabilities, including Hatakeyama and Kitamura.

The company says about 10 people have found jobs in fields such as information technology and web production after taking part in its employment support events. Participants have reported that the experience changed their lives and connected them with companies they would not have encountered through public employment services.

Similar initiatives are spreading across Japan. The Gunma Prefecture e-Sports Association held what it described as Japan's first esports tournament exclusively for people with disabilities in 2019. The Japan Para e-Sports Association has since been established in Osaka, and the Ehime Para e-Sports Tournament, featuring competitors from disability support facilities across the prefecture, was first held in 2021.

These efforts come as Japan continues to face challenges in expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The statutory employment rate that companies are required to meet was raised on July 1 from 2.5 percent to 2.7 percent, yet as of June 2025, fewer than half of companies had met even the previous requirement. Kato said he hopes esports can help challenge assumptions about the kinds of work people with disabilities can do and create a society with a wider range of career choices.