AJSLP World View An Overview of Managing Stuttering in Japan Shin Ying Chu, a Naomi Sakai, a and Koichi Mori a Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the rapid development of speech-language pathology in Japan since governmental licensing started in 1997 and to summarize the current trends in assessing and treating stuttering for preschoolers, school-age children, adolescents, and adults. Method: The authors review relevant information about the current assessment and treatment services for people who stutter in Japan and discuss the issues and challenges faced by speech-language pathologists in managing stuttering. Conclusion: It is predicted that as expertise in stuttering grows in Japan, the role of stuttering specialists in allied health, school districts, and research will increase. A lthough the speech-language pathology profession was established in 1925 in the United States, it was not until about 30 years later that the profes- sion of speech-language pathology and audiology started in Japan, when the Japan Society of Logopedics and Phonia- trics (JSLP) was established in 1956 (Kirikae, 1986). The JSLP comprises professionals from different areas, includ- ing otolaryngologists, neurologists, speech-language pathol- ogists, and school teachers. With the launching of the JSLP, speech-language pathology was practiced under the super- vision of otolaryngologists in medical settings until the establishment of the Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists (SLHTs) Act in 1997. Three years later, the Japanese Asso- ciation of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists (JAS) was established and became the official Japanese speech- language pathology professional association. Prior to the establishment of the SLHTs Act, the common title for speech-language pathologist in Japan had long been “speech therapist.” As a result of the SLHTs Act, by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, an SLHT (“Gengochoukakushi” in Japanese) is legally defined as “a professional working for speech, language, and hearing handicapped people” (Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1997). Together with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Welfare developed the SLHT curriculum as a guideline for education institutes to train SLHTs (Japan Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1998). As of 2013, there were 70 education institutes that provide three types of SLHT training in Japan that differ in duration and enrollment qualification: (a) 4 years of training after high school, (b) 3 years of training after high school, and (c) 2 years of training after 4 years of college (Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Thera- pists [JAS], 2013). All of these curricula fulfill the pre- requisite lectures and clinical practices for a national license examination in order to provide speech-language services. In terms of the number of institutions per capita, Japan and the United States are comparable: with approximately 70 institutions, Japan has a population of 128 million, while the United States has 317 million and approximately 250 institutions. The first national license examination for SLHTs was administered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1999. As of April 2013, 21,994 therapists held the SLHT national license, with an average of 1,500 new licenses is- sued per year over the past five years (JAS, 2013). The JAS does not require all licensed SLHTs to register as members, and therefore the exact gender distribution of its member- ship is unknown. However, in a survey of 12,104 JAS mem- bers, the majority of its members (78.3%) were female (JAS, 2013). Approximately 75% of SLHTs are working in health care settings, 9% in nursing homes, 8% in welfare centers, 3% in education, 2% in special education schools, 1% in research centers, and 2% in other settings, according to a survey of 10,849 members (JAS, 2013). Clinical caseloads usually consist of speech and language disorders, voice dis- orders, feeding and swallowing disorders, hearing loss, and cognitive disorders in adults and children. a National Rehabilitation Center for Persons With Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan Correspondence to Shin Ying Chu: chu-shinying@rehab.go.jp Editor: Carol Scheffner Hammer Associate Editor: Patrick Finn Received August 5, 2013 Revision received January 10, 2014 Accepted June 17, 2014 DOI: 10.1044/2014_AJSLP-13-0085 Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time of publication. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology • Vol. 23 • 742–752 • November 2014 • © American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 742