 The Japanese Ministry of Education recognised as early as 1966 that Japan's school system faced challenges in the education and re-integration of children who had returned from overseas.Under the idea of "nihonjinron", which stressed the alleged uniqueness of Japanese society, "kikokushijo" began to be characterised in the 1970s as problem children who needed assistance in readjusting to Japanese society; they were thought to be too Westernised and individualistic.Much of the image of "kikokushijo" as "educational orphans" in need of "rescue" came from the parents of such children.