International Child & Family Social Services
Intercountry Adoption
(Supported by Japan Bicycle Foundation)

 

With the support of the Japan Bicycle Foundation, ISSJ provides international child & family social services in order for the children who do not have caretakers to be protected and nurtured in a new family setting by means of intercountry adoption.

Intercountry Adoption Service has been one of the most essential child welfare services of ISSJ since the forerunner of ISSJ, the Japan-America Joint Committee for the Assistance of Orphans, was inaugurated for the purpose of assisting a number of racially mixed children after World War II. Its general principle is adoption in the best interests of the child. That is, the purpose of adoption should be to seek for a new family which can fully meet the needs of a child and not just to introduce a child to a married couple who did not have an opportunity to have a child. In order to prevent the child who normally should be raised by his/her birth parents in Japan from easily being sent abroad for adoption, ISSJ first provides thorough interview and consultation with biological parents. We also provide all the possible assistance in order for the biological parents to become able to raise the child. In such cases where the biological parents cannot raise the child by any means, ISSJ begins by seeking for prospective adoptive parents within Japan with the cooperation of the Child Guidance Center and other relevant organizations. Although Intercountry Adoption always should be considered as a secondary means for matching a prospective adoptive family with the child, it is important to consider the child's racial and ethnic backgrounds and special needs as well as the prospective adoptive parents' desire and to ultimately choose the ones who will provide for the best interests of the child.

ISSJ provides orientation meetings for applicants for intercountry adoptions such as Japanese and Filipino or Thai couples.

Of all the children whom ISSJ has assisted in the past, a majority of them have foreign nationality or have one of the parents as a foreign national. Some children suffered from illness, physical disabilities, or developmental disabilities. It is difficult to place those children with Japanese couples and so it is more likely for them to become candidates for intercountry adoption. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases of which the children are under the care of Child Guidance Center being left by foreign parents. By contacting the Social Service Department of which the child is originally from, ISSJ carefully facilitates a child assessment by searching for the biological parent and studying the possibility of the child's relatives caring for the child. There were some cases in which the missing mother/father was found in the process of child assessment or the child's relative in a foreign country gladly assumed responsibility to the child. ISSJ also puts a particular emphasis on providing counseling for the biological parents and caring for the adoptive child and parents as a post-adoption service.