I Tried Writing a Employment Passport—Showing What to Write with Real Examples
Have you heard of a document called an "Employment Passport"?
It is a tool for people with disabilities to organize and communicate their characteristics, strengths, and necessary accommodations to companies when job hunting.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare provides a free format, but many people get stuck, not knowing what or how to write.
I was the same at first. I will honestly show the process of how I actually wrote it, section by section.
What is an Employment Passport? (A Minimal Explanation)
The Employment Passport is a format provided by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for self-management and self-disclosure.
Unlike a resume or curriculum vitae, its purpose is not to list "work achievements," but to organize:
“What kind of person am I, in what kind of environment can I perform well, and conversely, what conditions make me prone to losing my balance?”
There is no obligation to submit it to companies.
It is generally used by writing it for yourself first, and then sharing it as needed during interviews or when adjusting accommodations after joining a company.
The format can be downloaded from the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Employment Guidelines for Persons with Disabilities page.The main structure of the format is as follows:
1) Work experience, 2) Work-related appeal points, 3) Physical condition management and desired working style (stressors, stress signs, coping methods), 4) Communication aspects, 5) Task execution aspects.
There is also a self-check section for after joining the company, and it is designed with the premise that you will continue to update and use it after finding employment.
Sections that were easy to write
"Work experience" and "Appeal points" were relatively easy to write.
Organizing work history chronologically is something I have done before in resumes, curriculum vitae, and skill sheets.
Experience as an IT infrastructure engineer, experience as an NPO staff member, internship experience at museums and art galleries—it was difficult to organize at first because it spanned multiple fields, but the self-analysis I did during rework became the foundation.
In the appeal points section, I wrote both what I evaluated myself (analytical ability, desire to learn, high problem awareness) and what people at workplaces and support organizations told me ("empathetic," "thoughtful," "perspective of utilizing characteristics as strengths").
Lining up self-evaluation and others' evaluation made the gaps and matches between "the self I think I am" and "the self seen by those around me" visible, which was interesting.
I was a little hesitant about how to handle "hyper-focus." Should the nature of being able to deeply immerse myself in things be written in the "strengths" section as a "thing I am good at," or in the "accommodations" section because it is difficult to control? My conclusion was to write it in both.
I honestly conveyed the duality of strength and accommodation by stating, "It becomes a strength if I can have an environment where I can exert my concentration."
Sections that were difficult to write
The most difficult part was the "necessary accommodations" section.
Verbalizing "what I want accommodated" by myself is a higher hurdle than I thought.
Hesitation to ask for accommodations, anxiety that "I won't be hired if I say such things," and the fact that I couldn't even put into words "what I am struggling with" in the first place
—these overlapped, and my hands stopped.
If I hadn't practiced in rework and employment transition support, I think this section would have remained blank.
The work of listing stressors within the program and verbalizing them as a set with coping methods was directly useful here.
In my case, examples of the accommodations I wrote are as follows:
"I am not good at processing a large amount of information from my ears at once, so it would be helpful if task instructions were limited to three at a time."
"I want to secure time to go outside the office during lunch break to rest my head and eyes."
"I can maintain my performance if overtime is limited to 1 hour per day and 20 hours per month."
When I wrote it down, I had the feeling that "it's okay to communicate these things."
Before I wrote them out, I also thought, "Is it okay to write these things?" in the stress signs section.
"I become unable to cook."
"I want to encourage myself with intense music."
"I become hesitant to consult."
"My circular thinking (self-reflection alone) won't stop."
—these are certainly signs of my crisis, but I had doubts about whether they were too heavy to show in a job interview.
However, once I understood that the Employment Passport is not a "document for hiring" but a "document for adjusting accommodations after joining the company," I was able to write them honestly.
Things that were good about writing it
Having an Employment Passport makes it easy to give the impression of being a "person who understands themselves" in an interview.
When having interviews for employment of people with disabilities, I realized that this "self-understanding of one's disability" is an especially important point.
The fact that "I understand my strengths, weaknesses, and necessary accommodations, and can verbalize them" becomes a reassuring factor for the recruiter.
This is because it becomes a basis for judging "whether this person will try to deal with it themselves or consult appropriately when a problem occurs after joining the company."
The Employment Passport also becomes a foundation for adjusting accommodations after joining the company.
You can update it by saying, "I communicated this at the interview stage, but after actually working, this point was not a problem, and this point was a greater burden than expected."
Its role as a document does not end once submitted; it functions as a continuous communication tool for workplace retention.
To those who will write it from now on
It is better not to try to write it alone.
The quality will improve significantly if you write it together with support staff from employment transition support, rework, Nakapotsu (Employment and Livelihood Support Center for Persons with Disabilities), or youth support centers.
It is difficult to judge alone whether "it is okay to write this" or "whether this way of asking for accommodations will be understood." Support staff are experts for that purpose.
You don't have to try to write it perfectly. The first version can be rough. The Employment Passport is something to be updated.
What you wrote before employment, what you reviewed three months after joining, what you revised one year later—it is fine for each to have different content.
The correct way to use it is not to "create a completed version" but to "regularly update it as a mirror that reflects your current self."
"Completing it" is a cognitive distortion. There is no such thing as completion. There is value in creating it. There is value in understanding yourself.
I want you to perceive it that way.
The "accommodations" section, which was the most difficult to write, has the most value.
I understand the feeling of wanting to leave it blank. But filling it in carefully is the first step toward creating an environment where you can work easily.
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