Who is entitled to receive the services of the child guidance center?
Regardless of citizenship or background, all children under 18 and their families are entitled to services at the child guidance center. In other words, there is no separate program or facility for non-Japanese speakers, and the foreigners would also go through the regular Japanese channel. Because the protection of non-Japanese children has been very rare so far, the number of these cases has been limited, and there has not been any specialized and systematic approach to assist the non-Japanese speaking families. But TELL’s recent contacts with the child guidance centers suggest that some child guidance centers do their best to understand and accommodate these families, and they can be culturally sensitive and flexible in dealing with suspected cases of child abuse that involve non-Japanese speakers. What happens to the child and to the family after a report is made of suspected child abuse? Because of the confidentiality issue, the system is not transparent for individuals making the
