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Japan Special Education
Japanese special education at the compulsory level is
highly
organized in the late 1980s, even though it had been
nationally
mandated and implemented only in 1979. There is still
controversy
over whether children with special needs can or should be
"mainstreamed." In a society that stresses the group, many
parents
desire to have their children attend regular schools.
Mainstreaming
in Japan, however, does not necessarily mean attending
regular
classes; it often means attending a regular school that
has special
classes for handicapped students. There are also special
public
schools for the handicapped, which have departments
equivalent to
the various levels of elementary and secondary schools,
including
kindergarten and upper-secondary departments in some
cases. There
are few private institutions for special education. Some
students
attend regular classes and also special classes for
training for
their particular needs. Some teachers are also dispatched
to
children who can not attend schools (see
table 6,
Appendix).
Data as of January 1994
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