Developmental Disability Information & Support Center (DDIC)

The Developmental Disability Information and Support Center (発達障害情報・支援センター) is a national information hub for developmental disabilities, run by the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities. It pulls together information that is normally scattered across welfare, education, medical, and employment systems, and organizes it so families, teachers, and support workers can find their way through. For a parent whose child has just raised questions about autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or other developmental disabilities, it is a solid, trustworthy starting point that is not tied to selling any particular service.

The site is organized around plain stages a parent actually moves through: noticing something (気づく), figuring out what to do (どうする？), understanding the condition (理解する), the formal systems and programs available (制度), and where to find consultation windows (相談窓口). It also links to maps of children’s mental health clinics by prefecture and lists of medical institutions that handle developmental disability care, including a list of clinics able to support foreign-language speakers.

For foreign families specifically, this center is more useful than most Japanese government pages. It publishes free multilingual pamphlets on child development and support: one for families raising young children (before elementary school) available in 25 languages, and one for families of elementary through high-school-age children available in 12 languages, both including English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Nepali, and more. The host center is based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, but this is a nationwide resource. The main site is in Japanese, though browser translation works well, and the pamphlets themselves are professionally translated into English and many other languages.