was made final in June, 1995, as a result of a mail vote of the member organizations. It was decided also that the former name would also be given, with the new name, as an explanation.
(b) The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability
The International Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency (IASSMD), a worldwide organization focusing on the study of intellectual disabilities, had already decided in 1992, at the Board of Councilors meeting held in connection with its world conference in Australia, to change its name to the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID). The name was officially changed at the special general assembly in June 1995.
(c) Inclusion Japan
The Japanese Parents' Association for the Mentally Retarded on October 2 accepted the proposed change in its articles of association and changed its name to Inclusion Japan: The Japanese Association of/for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
(d) Other organizations
(1) In April, the Japanese Association of Brothers and Sisters of People with Mental and Physical Disabilities changed its name to the Japanese Association of Siblings Walking Together with Persons with Disabilities.
(2) The Japanese Association of Workshop Facilities changed its name in June to the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation and Employment Centers.
(3) The League of Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) and Other Diet Members, in October, changed to the League of Diet Members Concerned about Measures for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
H. International Exchanges
1. The Group Training Course on Mental Retardation (JICA Contract Program)
Overseas development assistance (ODA) from Japan consists of three major parts: (a) financial contributions with no requirement for payback, and technological contributions, (b) loans, and (c) investment in and contributions to international agencies. Among the Japanese agencies providing overseas development assistance, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) mainly takes charge of the technological contributions, and Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), the loans.
The Group Training Course on Mental Retardation is one of the technological contributions provided by JICA. This is the training course that the Japan League for the Mentally Retarded has managed since 1980, under a contract from JICA. Over the past 16 years, the League course has involved 131 trainees from 33 countries.
Eight trainees from eight countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Nepal, Pakistan, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) participated in the 16th Group Training Course in 1995. All of them work actively in their own countries; the participants included a neurologist, a clinical psychologist, an administrator, a coordinator of community-based rehabilitation, a psychiatrist, a social worker, a director of a residential institution, and a vice principal of a school for children with disabilities. The training period was from May 15 to August 4. The curriculum consisted of lectures, study tours, and discussions. The theme for the training was "services in the community".
It is not easy to conduct training on welfare in the community in Japan, because different communities need different kinds of services; what the trainees could learn from services in Japan was limited, because the Japanese culture and economy were so different from their own countries'. In the 16th training course, to compensate for this limitation, we scheduled many discussion sessions for the trainees in which they identified the state of the art and needs in their own countries. As a result, because the trainees had the opportunity to identify what was feasible for services in their own countries, they could judge the Japanese services objectively and were able to think realistically about the development of their own
