Abstract
Continuing from Part 1, this paper aims to elucidate how discussion of “autism” unfolded in the Diet in the 1960s, focusing on its beginnings and in particular the second discussion of this topic in the Diet. Autism was discussed in the Diet for the second time as recorded in “June 7th, 1967, Records of the 55th Lower House of the Diet Social Labor Committee Meeting No. 17” thirteen days after the first discussion of this topic as recorded in “May 25th, 1967, Records of the 55th Lower House of the Diet Education Committee Meeting No. 36.” In the June 7th meeting, questioning of the Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare and bureaucrats from this ministry by Shimamoto Torazō, a Diet member belonging to the opposition Socialist Party, concerning the issue of autism in Japan and its treatment developed concretely, including an account of the establishment of a parents ’ association and “Asunaro Gakuen” in Mie Prefecture’s Takachaya Hospital. Shimamoto may have received petitions from Asunaro Gakuen staff and parents of children admitted to the facility. This is because Shimamoto's hometown of Hokkaido and Mie Prefecture had connections with parents' associations, facility officials, and politicians. Therefore, it can be speculated that before this discussion in the Diet, he was appealing for the national government to address autism as soon as possible. With the problems facing children with autism and their parents having been concretely raised – problems faced by staff, supporters, and the parents’ association of Asunaro Gakuen, where autistic children and their parents had gathered from throughout Japan, were presented – in a venue of the national government as a trigger, the issue of children with autism began to be treated as a social issue on a national scale rather than a problem of patient treatment faced by a regional public hospital. In other words, it can be said to have had great significance as a turning point toward the concrete implementation in policy of social systems to provide support for autism and related disabilities that had fallen through the cracks of the existing systems.
