Association in June 1995 found that there were 27 self-advocacy organizations in 21 prefectures.)
In other words, the movement in January 1995 means that participation of self-advocates in policymaking started at the national level of the parent organizations and, at the same time, local organizations to make solid networks. This new approach to decision-making was also used at the national conference in November. In May, the Japanese Association for Hand in Hand organized a preparatory committee for the self-advocacy section meeting at the Oita Conference, which consisted of representatives of self-advocacy organizations and their assistants. (Members of this committee are from Sapporo Minna-no Kai, Date Wakaba Kai, self-advocacy committee of Sendai City Parents' Association, Sakura Kai, self-advocacy committee of the Tokyo Parents' Association, self-advocacy committee of the Osaka Parents' Association, Tome-no Kai, Nagasaki Fureai Kyokai, and the Oita Parents' Association.)
Several meetings were held to prepare for the conference in November. At these meetings, without instructions from the assistants, the executive members decided everything, such as the planning, the assignment of the roles, who would preside, and how the conference would be managed.
At the conference, 500 participants came from all over Japan. This was 200 more participants than at last year's conference in Tokushima; sixty persons, at the time of registration for the conference, applied to make presentations. This large number surprised the organizing committee. Nine written resolutions were proposed at the meeting. They included new themes: "We want support so that we can make a national self-advocacy organization," and "We want the assistants to support us from the viewpoint of our own self-advocacy activities." A new era is coming in which the supporter of self-advocacy activities comes down from the plafform and begins a real cooperation with the self-advocates.
Information Provision, Supporters' Activities, and so on
Too many publications and videotapes have been published to be able to mention all of them here.Representative publications are "Independence Handbook 3: Book on Laws," and "Cheering Up Book 3:Dreams and Hopes", published by the Japanese Association for Hand in Hand. The NHK Welfare and Culture Foundation started to make videotapes for self-advocates as a new attempt ("Living in the Community" is the first of the series), and the Osaka Parents' Association made and sold 'A Little More Courage" and "Miyuki-san". This has been a year in which videotapes entered the genre of "the provision of easily understandable information".
Additionally, several international exchange activities proposed by supporters were carried out.Supported by the International Exchange Fund, twelve persons participated in the Nordic Conference of People with Intellectual Disabilities held in Finland in June. In August, a lecture by the leader of People First in the United States was planned to be held in Japan, and in November, interested self-advocacy societies planned to sponsor a lecture by a leader of self-advocates in Sweden (but this had to be canceled because of the speaker's sudden illness). These experiences led to the success of the First National Seminar of Supporters in March, 1996.
3. Organizations Change Their Names
In 1995, many domestic and foreign organizations concerned with people with disabilities changed their names. This was because many people changed in how they felt about the term "disability," as well as a result of the active efforts of organizations to have their names truly reflect their purpose. Especially a major factor was the fact that discussions about the formerly used term, "feeble-minded," had come to a conclusion. This whole field started to re-evaluate its "corporate identity".
(a) Inclusion International
The International League of Societies for People with Mental Handicap, which is a worldwide organization advocating the human rights of persons with intellectual disabilities and their families, had already decided on its new name, Inclusion International, at its general meeting in 1994. The decision
