Source: http://www.jldd.jp/gtid/news.html
Timestamp: 2018-06-17 21:48:17
Document Index: 495836393

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 1', 'Art. 14', 'Art. 20', 'Art. 12', 'Art. 4', 'Art. 14', 'Art.19', 'Art.19', 'Art. 33', 'Art.14', 'Art.16']

The Group Training Course on Intellectual Disabilities
Japanese Laws and Legislation
In this law, “developmental disabilities” shall refer to pervasive developmental disabilities including autism and Asperger syndrome,as well as brain functional disability including learning disability, attention deficient hyper-active disabilities,
Chapter One ¦ General Rules (Art. 1 to 4)
Chapter Two ¦ Measures for early detection of children with developmental disabilities
¦ and to support people with the disabilities
Chapter Three ¦ Support center for people with developmental disabilities (Art. 14 to19)
Chapter Four ¦ Supplementary rules (Art. 20 to 25)Additional rules
Chapter One ¦ General rules
This law shall have the objectives of providing support to every aspect of lives of persons with developmental disabilities to help them become independent and take part in society�fs activities, and of contributing to promoting their well-being, by clearly defining the responsibilities of the central and local governments for detecting developmental disabilities at an early stage and for providing developmental support, and by providing for support to persons with developmental disabilities in school education, for support to them to find employment, and for the designation of support centers for persons with developmental disabilities, in view of the fact that it is enormously important to provide developmental support at the earliest possible timing after the symptoms of developmental disabilities are detected , so that those with the disabilities can achieve appropriate mental function and lead smooth social lives.
In this law, “developmental disabilities” shall refer to pervasive developmental disabilities including autism and Asperger syndrome, as well as brain functional disability including learning disability, attention deficient hyper-active disabilities, and other similar disabilities, which are designated in the government ordinance as manifesting themselves normally at younger ages.
2. In this law, the “person with developmental disabilities” shall refer to those people whose daily or social lives are restricted by their developmental disabilities, and the “children with developmental disabilities” shall refer to those with developmental disabilities who are under eighteen years of age.
3. In this law, “developmental support” shall mean the medical, welfare-related and educational support, which is geared to the nature of developmental disabilities, and which is provided to people with developmental disabilities for the purpose of promoting their wholesome mental development and smooth social life.
Responsibilities of central and local governments
The central and local governments shall take necessary measures that are needed to detect developmental disabilities at an early stage, in view of the fact that it is extremely important for developmental support to be provided as soon as possible after the manifestation of the symptoms of developmental disabilities, in order to ensure that mental function of those with the disabilities will be developed adequately and that they can have smooth social lives.
2. The central and local governments shall take necessary measures to ensure that support will be provided in a manner suitable for the circumstances surrounding those children with developmental disabilities and at the earliest possible timing after the manifestation of the disabilities, in order to assist development at pre-school stage as well as at schools, and to ensure that support is provided to those people with developmental disabilities to help find employment as well as community lives, and to their families.
3. In providing support and other measures to the person with developmental disabilities, utmost consideration shall be given to the decisions made by people with developmental disabilities, and the custodians of the children with the disabilities (those who exercise parental rights, and the guardian for minors, and who provide care and protection to the children).
4. In providing support and other measures to people with developmental disabilities, the central and local governments shall ensure the agencies responsible for medical and healthcare, welfare, education, and labor services communicate closely with each other, and make efforts to improve cooperative arrangements between these agencies and the one for consumers�f lives and other agencies, so that those with developmental disabilities will not be victimized by crimes and other activities.
Citizen�fs responsibility
The citizens shall try to deepen their understanding of welfare for people with developmental disabilities, and to cooperate with those with the disabilities, based upon the concept of social solidarity, as the latter endeavors to take part in socio-economic activities.
Chapter Two ¦ Measures to detect children with developmental disabilities at
¦ an early stage and to provide support to those with the disabilities
Early detection of developmental disabilities in the child
Municipal governments shall exercise due care to detect developmental disabilities at an early stage as they conduct physical checkup on children in accordance with Art. 12 and 13 of the Maternal and Child Health Law (Law No.141 of 1965)
2. The municipal board of education shall exercise due care to detect developmental disabilities of children at an early stage as it conducts physical checkup in accordance with Art. 4 of the School Health Law (Law No. 56 of 1958)
3. When the municipal board of education has reason to believe that any given child might have developmental disabilities, it shall endeavor to provide continuous counseling about him or her, for better support provision, and shall, as necessary, introduce his or her custodians to the support center for people with developmental disabilities specified in Clause 1, Art. 14, or introduce them to medical institutions and other agencies designated by prefectural governments in accordance with Art.19 (to be called �gCenters etc, in Clause 1 of the next Article), so that the child can receive medical and psychological assessment at an early stage.
4. Municipal governments shall take into full consideration the decisions by the children and their custodians who are covered by the measures specified in the three preceding clauses when they implement such measures.
5. Prefectures shall, at the request of municipalities, provide technical guidance, advice, and other necessary technical assistance to them concerning early detection of developmental disabilities in children.
Assistance for early detection
Municipal governments shall counsel custodians of children with developmental disabilities, introduce them to support centers and other agencies, give them advice and take other necessary measures, so that the children with developmental disabilities can be provided with developmental support.
2. The provisions of Clause 4 of Article 5 shall be applied when the measures specified in the last clause are to be taken.
3. Prefectural governments shall make necessary arrangements to render early developmental support for children with developmental disabilities, and take necessary measures to ensure that expertise on developmental support is available for the benefit to those children.
Municipal governments shall make necessary arrangements and take due care, in providing child care services, to ensure that children with developmental disabilities will be able to develop in a wholesome way through contacts with other children.
The central and local governments shall take necessary measures including appropriate educational support and improvement in support arrangements, in order for children with developmental disabilities (those children with developmental disabilities who are eighteen years old or older, including those enrolled in senior, junior high schools, schools for visually disabled children or for those with hearing impairment, as well as special schools for disabled children) to receive adequate education in accordance with the state of their disabilities.
2. Universities and advanced vocational schools shall make necessary educational arrangements in accordance with the state of students with developmental disabilities.
The use of services for appropriate after-school care of school children
Municipal governments shall make necessary arrangements and take due care, to ensure that children with developmental disabilities can have the opportunity to use the services for appropriate after-school care for school children)
Prefectural governments shall install the system to support employment for people with developmental disabilities, ensure cooperative relationship among various organizations, including public employment security offices, local vocational center for people with disabilities (specified in Clause 3, Art.19, of the Law for Promotion of Employment for People with Disabilities, Law No123 of 1960), employment and livelihood support center for people with disabilities (designated under Art. 33 of the same law), social security councils, boards of education, and other relevant organizations as well as private entities, in order to secure appropriate employment opportunities commensurate with the abilities of people with developmental disabilities.
2. Prefectural and municipal governments shall take necessary measures to ensure that schools provide necessary support for children with developmental disabilities in order for those children to become appropriately prepared for employment
Support to living in community
Municipal governments shall endeavor to provide support to people with developmental disabilities, including the opportunity to receive training for adapting themselves to society, the housing for living as a group in community, so that they can lead independent lives, as they wish.
The central and local governments shall provide necessary support to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities in order to ensure that their interests and rights will not be violated, including discrimination on the grounds of their disabilities.
Support to the families of people with developmental disabilities
Prefectural and municipal governments shall, while coordinating with relevant agencies including child guidance centers, endeavor to provide appropriate support to families of people with developmental disabilities including counseling and advice, in order to contribute to promoting welfare for people with disabilities by enabling the families to provide proper custody to them.
Chapter Three ¦ Support center for people with developmental disabilities
Support center for people with developmental disabilities
Prefectural governors can take the following actions or allow some selected social welfare (non-profit) organization or other corporate bodies, which are deemed capable of performing such activities appropriately and reliably, to do the same on their behalf:
1. Provide, as experts, counseling and advice to people with developmental disabilities and their families, to help detect the disabilities and support development at an early stage,
2. Provide, as experts, support to people with developmental disabilities to help them develop their abilities and find employment.
3. Provide information and training on developmental disabilities to relevant organizations and private bodies engaged in medical, healthcare, welfare and educational services (to be referred to as �gmedical and other services in Item 4).
4. Liaise and coordinate with relevant organizations and private bodies engaged in medical and other services.
5. Other duties related to all the work and services specified in the preceding items (1 to 4)
Officers or employees who work or worked at the support center for people with developmental disabilities shall not disclose any information about individuals that they have come to know about in performing their duties.
Prefectural governors can get the head of the relevant support center for people with developmental disabilities to report on the state of its operation when they see the need for such reporting to ensure that work is properly performed according to Clause 1, Article 14, or get their personnel to visit the same center or its office and to conduct necessary surveys and ask questions on the state of operation.
2. The personnel who visit for inspection or questioning as specified in the preceding clause shall carry the proof to demonstrate his identity and show it upon request.
3. The right to conduct inspection and questioning as specified in Clause 1 shall not be construed as the activities for criminal investigation.
Order for Improvement
When prefectural governors recognize the need for improvement to ensure appropriate operation of the support center for people with developmental disabilities as specified in Clause 1, Art.14, they can issue orders that actions should be taken for such improvement.
Prefectural governors can revoke the designation that has been given to any support center for people with developmental disabilities when they have great difficulty in grasping how it is being operated because the center fails to produce reports as specified in Clause 1, Art.16, produces false reports, refuses to accept the inspection as specified in the clause, obstructs or evades the same, refuses to respond to questions, or produces false answers, or when the center violates the orders as specified in the previous article.
Ensuring service availability of expert medical institutions
Prefectural governments shall ensure that hospitals and clinics that are recognized as capable of providing, as experts, diagnosis of developmental disabilities and developmental support are available.
2. The central and local governments shall promote cooperation among the medical institutions specified in the previous clause, and provide necessary assistance including information offering on developmental support for those with the disabilities to such institutions.
Chapter Four ¦ Supplementary Rules
Support to private bodies
The central and local governments shall see to it that activities by private bodies to support people with developmental disabilities will be encouraged.
Raising citizens' awareness
The central and local governments shall perform necessary public relation and other activities to raise awareness of and promote citizens�f understanding of developmental disabilities.
Providing knowledge to and raising awareness of people engaged in medical and healthcare services
The central and local governments shall endeavor to provide knowledge to and raise awareness of those engaged in medical and healthcare services in order for them to detect developmental disabilities.
Securing human resources with expertise
The central and local governments shall endeavor to secure human resources with expertise on developmental disabilities to be engaged in medical, healthcare, welfare and education, for adequate provision of support to people with developmental disabilities, and shall take necessary actions including training to promote understanding on the disabilities and to upgrade expertise.
The central government shall endeavor to grasp the current conditions of people with developmental disabilities and conduct necessary studies and research on the identification of the causes of developmental disabilities, the diagnosis and treatment of the disabilities, as well as the way to support development.
Exception applied to major cities
The government-ordinance-designated cities shall handle, under Clause 19-1, Article 252, the Local Government Law (Law No.67 of 1947) and the Government Ordinance, the administrative work that this law stipulates that prefectural governments should perform. In such cases, the provision of this law to be applied to prefectural governments shall be applied to designated cities.
1. This law shall go into effect on April 1, 2005.
2. The central government shall review the state of operation of the law three years after it has gone into force, and make necessary revisions based upon review results