The first “White Paper on Mental Retardation" (Japanese Edition ) was published in 1961 by three organizations concerned with mental retardation, namely the Japan Teachers' Association for the Mentally Retarded, the Japanese Association for the Care and Training of the Mentally Retarded, and the Japanese Parents' Association for the Mentally Retarded (present name, Inclusion Japan).
Since 1975, this yearbook has been published by the Japan League for the Mentally Retarded (JLMR), because JLMR was established in 1974 as the organization uniting the above-mentioned three organizations and the Japanese Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency (present name, the Japanese Association for the Study of Developmental Disabilities).
As the activities of JLMR have been concerned with assistance to developing countries and especially the Asian Resource Center (ARC) of the Asian Federation for Mentally Retarded (AFMR) which was founded in the JLMR in 1986, the League published the first edition of "Rehabilitation Services for People with Mental Retardation in Japan" in English in 1989.
The second edition of this report was published in August 1991. As the significance of the publication of this report is increasing year after year, we were requested to publish this report annually. JLMR takes great pleasure in providing you with the 1996 edition on current trends and topics in Japan concerning comprehensive services for people with mental retardation and gratefully acknowledges support for this publication from the Nippon Foundation. We hope this year's report will be useful to develop welfare for persons with mental retardation in many countries, especially in developing countries.
