area, such as air conditioning. In addition, the school is well located, in that it is five minutes' walk from the Japan Railway station. As a result, its role as a shelter lasted more than eleven months, until December 25. The fact that schools providing better sheller conditions were kept as shelters for a longer period posed a serious problem in terms of the role of the shelter school to accept refugees.
(d) Efforts in the field of employment
The Great Hanshin Earthquake, which happened early in the morning of January 17,1995, did great damage, mainly to the Hanshin district.
Everything, such as transportation (port, railways, and roads), factories, stores, and houses, was catastrophically damaged, as if after bombing during a war.
Besides the direct damage from the disaster, a situation especially difficult for people with disabilities was the condition of the transportation system. Railways were interrupted, roads were unusable because of upheavals and subsidence, two-story houses collapsed and blocked the roads, electricity poles leaned,and electric wires hung down. In such a situation, traffic restrictions were imposed that gave priority to restoration. For people with physical and other disabilities, there were too many dangers and barriers for them to be able to go to their job sites.
In this situation, in order to prepare urgent measures for the maintenance of jobs of people with disabilities after the disaster, the Employment Security Office had to find out about the actual situation by doing an urgent questionnaire survey about the influence of the disaster on the public maintenance of employment of people with disabilities.
The results of this survey showed that 166 previously employed persons with physical disabilities and 55 with intellectual disabilities had been laid off.
Because they were not able to work for many days until the factory or store where they had worked became restored, it was considered important to maintain their job abilities, especially those who were persons with intellectual disabilities.
So, in cooperation with the Hyogo Vocational Center for People with Disabilities, and with the complete support of the Ministry of Labor and the Japan Employment Promoting Society for People with Disabilities,we decided to offer maintenance training on vocational abilities (vocational preparation training) as a countermeasure against the disaster. The training site was the Nojigiku Hall and Hyogo Vocational Center for People with Disabilities, near the Hyogo Prefectural office building.
Now, one year has passed since the disaster. In that period, twenty4ive persons received this training. Sixteen of them returned to their original job sites or found new jobs, while the remaining nine are waiting either for restoration of the factories or for the Public Employment Security Office to find new employment for them.
Meanwhile, a director of the Ministry of Labor's Department of Employment Measures for People with Disabilities came to the prefecture and encouraged the trainees directly. Seeing the happy faces of the trainees at that time, we really felt happy that the Labor Administration was involved.
In 1996, the policy in Hyogo prefecture was changed from the maintenance of employment of people with disabilities to facilitation of their employment. We will overcome the experience of the disaster with cooperation between people with disabilities and the administration.
2. People with Intellectual Disabilities Take Leading Roles in Many TV Programs and Movies
In fiscal year 1995, characters with intellectual disabilities appeared in many dramas on television and in movies as leading characters or in other main roles. Of course, characters with intellectual disabilities have appeared occasionally in television and movies prior to this. A very long-running TV program, "A Naked General's Wanderings", uses a famous painter, Kiyoshi Yamashita, as the model for the leading character, retaining his name; that he had an intellectual disability is well known. Also, people with intellectual disabilities appear frequently in various documentary programs, such as "24-hour Television" of the Nihon Television group. But in this past year, such individuals have appeared in popular dramas
