ABSTRACT
Over the last few decades, a wealth of data on Japanese education in general has been amassed in the English language. Starting with Passin's (1967) summary, scholars have branched out to study various levels and aspects of Japanese schooling: Peak, 1991; Hendry, 1986; Lewis, 1995; Rohlen and LeTendre, 1996. However, little attention has been paid to the topic of' special education' (tokushu kyôiku) in Japan, nor has much been written with regard to how differently abled students are (or are not) integrated into Japanese classrooms (see Demoulin and Kendall, 1993, or Masawa et al., 1993, for some of the few published works in the area).
