Oct 26 (Japan Today) - Japan's health ministry will create a database of babysitters who have been convicted of sexual assault to prevent them from continuing to work with children unbeknownst to parents and local municipalities.
The plan to create the database, which is likely to be rolled out in April, comes after two men who were registered with a babysitter matching app were separately arrested earlier this year for sexually assaulting children under their care.
Babysitters, whether working independently or through an employer, are required by law to register with either the prefecture or city they work in.
But because there is no centralized system for local municipalities to share information about babysitters who have been convicted of sexual assault, they can simply move to another city and work with children again.
The database would list babysitters who have been accused of sexual assault, then update their status if they are found guilty and issued an administrative order to stop work.
The government is targeting the share of women with jobs to increase from the current 77 percent to 82 percent by 2025 even though more than 12,000 children were unable to enroll at a nursery due to a lack of availability as of April this year.
