combined, and then day care programs for children with physical and mental disabilities, or nursery school programs for children with disabilities would be fulfilled and empowered on the local government level.This may lead to a positive expectation that the present imperfect situation which causes continuous dissatisfaction on the part of users and workers would be somewhat resolved.
On the other hand, although the institutional system has considerably improved, obvious differences remain among regions and among programs within regions, so that feelings of inequity and lack of fairness are common among users.
In the 1996 Day Care Program report, it seemed that many people directly concerned realized that the point of view mentioned above was lacking. In other words, regardless of when or where users were born,they strongly demanded a support system that gives them free choice, without anxiety.
The present system, in which children who are diagnosed as having a disability live in a special limited space such as an institution, together with other such children and some professional group of care workers, cannot be responsive to the needs of children with developmental disabilities who are living in the community nor to their families' needs. Currently, the establishment of "developmental support centers" is planned; these centers would have the right and responsibility to disseminate total developmental support, including training, teaching, and providing advice on disability in order to alleviate suffering, anxiety, and doubt about various developmental programs, from the individual level to the program level.
D. Education
The following are five current issues in special education, including education for children with mental retardation:
1. Employment promotion for graduates from high school.
2. Expansion of the function of schools for students who are blind or deaf or have other disabilities to become a center in a region (to develop a network for a system that could support special classes or classes in which children with disabilities are partially included).
3. Consultation for educational placement (to expand consultation for education, and connect it to consultation for educational placement).
4. Improvement of special training for teachers.
5. Provision of equipment for schools for students who are blind or deaf or who have other mental or physical disabilities (considering proper distribution, the size of the schools, and establishment of a suitable number of high schools).
Various kinds of programs have been developed by the national and prefectural governments to deal with these issues. Recently, education based on new views of academic achievement and evaluation has been sought for primary, junior, and senior high schools, and, of course, as it is newly understood, for the education of children with developmental disabilities. These new views of academic achievement emphasize the processes of learning, such as thought, judgment, and expression, and also emotional aspects, such as interest, concern, volition, attitude, and habit. This curriculum is well thought of in the field of education for children with developmental disabilities and is considered to be the fundamental basis of education and guidance at each school.
Since April, 1995, the 15th Central Education Council has engaged in an energetic discussion about what education should be like in the 21st century. The first committee of the council to take up such issues discussed the method of education in the future, the role of school, home, and community, and the relationship between school, home, and community. Other topics of discussion have included that the nature and capacity necessary for school children are "strengths to live" in a rapidly changing society, that enjoyable educational activities are needed as the basis of training at school, and that the promotion of general instruction should be pursued, depending on school children's developmental stage and the actual circumstances of the school and the region, in order to respond to new social demands.
"Strengths to live" is a major issue that educators in developmental disabilities have emphasized by including the term "strengths" in such phrases as "capacity to live and to work" and "sthrenths for living", as well as "ability to live", and using these as themes for education. This has been pursued for a long
