Hiring ex-cons can be good for business. Word of Yoshihiro Noguchi, owner of three petrol stations in Japan. Since starting the business in 1995, the 71-year-old has hired more than 100 employees, including young people with criminal histories, including one who damaged his own gas station, and former convicts. For this he received recognition from Akihiro Yoshida, associate professor of Kogakkan University, and his students. For Noguchi, however, it's not about doing charity, it's about improving his business.
“My employees are so grateful to have a chance to reintegrate into society that they work especially hard. The community approves and in doing so we have also won a fierce price battle”. Customers who appreciate Noguchi's efforts, in fact, don't mind paying a few cents more for petrol to support him.
Noguchi is the first in a series of entrepreneurs to receive an award this year from Yoshida, who teaches welfare for children and adolescents at the university. Others will be businessmen who employ people with disabilities or victims of so-called social disadvantages.
In Japan, companies with fewer than 50 employees are not obliged to hire disabled people, but a research by the University of Kogakkan has revealed that more and more are doing so, with undoubted image and economic advantages. The Ministry of Justice has introduced a program which supports the hiring of people with criminal records. As of April 1, 2013, 11,044 companies were participating.
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