* The following resources for international children with special needs and their families are those which the website author had the chance to interact with when conducting his research. Besides the ones included here, there are many others. To learn more about them, please consult the “helpful websites” page of this website.

Organizations:

“Kento Center”: This is a learning support center based in Kobe city, Hyogo prefecture, which was created to provide better special needs support for international families in Japan. This center is relatively new, but their ambitions and ideas are important. They provide many different kinds of services, and they can also provide support to families by phone. This is their website with their services: http://kentocenter.org/ 

“NPO EDGE: Japan Dyslexia Society”: This is an organization based in Tokyo focusing on helping children with Learning Disabilities (LD), and specifically Dyslexia. While it is not catering specifically to international families, the founder is fluent in both Japanese and English, and the organization can certainly help an international family who is interested in receiving support and learning more about how to support their child with special needs. This is their website: https://www.npo-edge.jp/about/englishpage/

“Lucrea Inc.”: This is a therapy center based in Tokyo focused on providing different types of therapy (mainly speech and hearing) to children with special needs. The founder can speak both Japanese and English, and the center can provide support and therapy in English to international families. The center is also able to help with providing shadow teachers to families that may need one, and can help with constructing learning plans. This is their website: http://www.lucrea.co.jp/english-1

“Tokyo Mental Health”: This is a therapy center that focuses on mental health, but can also help with providing assessments in a language other than Japanese for a child with special needs. These assessments can help with eventually constructing a learning plan. This is their website: https://www.tokyomentalhealth.com/psychology-testing/

“Tokyo English Life Line (TELL) Japan”: This is an organization that is very helpful for international families living in Japan in general, and as part of the organization and through their lifeline they can provide some consultation for an international family with special needs, and also provide assessments. They are also linked with one of the parent support groups that was created for international parents with a child with special needs. This is their website: https://telljp.com/outreach/epp/

Japanese Resources:

* It is very important to note here that of course any services available in Japan, for Japanese families are typically much cheaper. However, these services will generally be entirely in Japanese and if the family does not have a strong Japanese language ability there will be barriers and challenges. However, these can be overcome through the help of a translator or an interpreter. Also, sometimes the Japanese service provider can speak some other languages as well. To learn more about available service providers, ask your local city or district hall to explain what kind of support services you are looking for, including assessments, for example. Certain cities and districts will have more support for international families, so this is important to know as well. 

Here are Japanese organizations that can be contacted and possibly provide some support or help. These include:

“Japan Down Syndrome Society”: This is an organization that focuses on supporting families with children who have Down Syndrome, and some of the directors can speak English well. Here is the website: http://www.jdss.or.jp/e/

“Japan Acceptions Society”: This is an organization focused on improving inclusive education in Japan, as well as the acceptions process in the education system. Some of the members speak English well and can possibly help an international family as well. This is their website: https://acceptions.org/?portfolio=vol1

“Tracos”: This is an organization that focuses on coaching soccer and organizing fun events for children with special needs in Japan, as well as generally promoting inclusion in Japan. Some of the members of the organization speak English very well and can help an international family who is interested in learning more about events outside of schools for a child with certain special needs. This is their website: https://tracos.jp/en/tracos_en.html