Japan to delay bill blocking sex offenders from working with children

It should be expedited. Not delayed.

Great news for the "kiddy fiddlers". Not so good for the kiddies.

Lordy. That's not a good thing to do. But then

the intervening period to be used to review expanding the scope of jobs affected. 

Maybe they have a point. Remember the case of the doctor who was filming unnecessary practices from last week?

While a delay might sound negative, if it helps tighten up the legislation as the article suggests, it may be for the best.

Not good action.

By delaying, the government could be responsible for more sex offenders abusing kids within the education system. Pass this bill now and worry about other industries later..

There seams to be confussion over exemptions, like cram schools etc, the easiest way would be to make the bill should cover all children under the age of 18 years old, this would cover day care schools junior, high school, children's hospitals, adopted children, care homes, it should be a blanket bill covering all children.

How far should records go back? good question, 5 years? or more?

This bill should cover the whole of Japan, no exeptions for regions to be exempt, also once the bill is in place will all foreign travellers have to declare any convictions to the Japanese government? and over seas workers wanting to work with children be scrutinised and checked.

These details of sex offenders are held on a data base, how secure is it? who will have access to the data base? if a school has a new teacher joining them how will the school be informed, will the records office explain everything? or will it come back clear or this person is known to the police and courts?

If a teacher has a old conviction, and this bill becomes law, will the school be able to retire the teacher? or dismiss them? where do you stop? if its down to the individual school there could be claims of unfaire dismissal. Here in the UK you can ask the police if there is a person who has has a conviction for a sex crime, living in your local area, the police know who they are, as they monitor them, if a child is attacked in a street they will go and investigate.

I am glad to see that Japan is gradually comming around to this problem.

Kato said she intends to "make progress while carefully listening to a variety of views" when asked about the prospects for the legislation at her first press conference after she assumed the post last week.

I wonder if this Kato person has children of her own.

These precious politicians get a gig and think an issue has just appeared because they are only now appointed to it. Then, try to re-invent the wheel.

Act.

The time for “considering” is putting another child in harm’s way.

The DBS in the UK applies to all roles, paid or unpaid, that involves working with children or vulnerable adults. It ain’t rocket science.

Wait, it’s a bad thing that it’s being delayed to make it more comprehensive to protect more people?

Also also, sex offenders are the most successfully rehabilitated offenders.

The reason that the British version was introduced was precisely because of the failure of someone to rehabilitate, and he subsequently murdered a couple of girls at the school where he worked.

A 42% recidivism rate isn't good:

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/chld-mlstr/index-en.aspx

Even after treatment, the recidivism rate is still worryingly high. I would not want a convicted sex offender working in any school - their urges will never go away. You are far to blasé about it.

A sex offenders register is needed.

Just one thing: "sex offender" needs to be clearly defined. A fellow could wind up being classified as a "sex offender" for getting caught urinating late at night behind a dark building or in a dark corner of a park when he thought nobody was around - no real exposure, just a little careless and unlucky.

Dear me.

What a ludicrous thing to delay.

why isn’t it an automatic thing that if you diddle kids, you don’t work with kids anymore?

Great work, LDP. You certainly earned your next guaranteed election victory.

falseflagsteveSep. 24 09:34 pm JST

Chemically castrate all sex offenders

You do know that is reversible when they stop taking the drugs, right?

Then Frank Rodriguez was found guilty of a sex crime. He could have waited until Nikki came of age at 17.

https://hollywoodlife.com/2011/07/27/frank-rodriguez-sex-offender-father-of-four-today/

This is utterly disgraceful. They should pass the bill NOW and then make amendments as is necessary. Japan bemoans about low birth rates - who wants to have kids in a country where the government doesn't even bother protecting its young? Delaying this bill is tantamount to giving current and would-be sex offenders free reign to prey upon more victims. Shame on the Japanese government for this decision and for not having proper measures and a sex offenders registry in the first place.

On one side the criticism of the bill are rational and understandable, but on the other this issue is extremely important, so the identified problems should have been already dealt with and ironed without any need for a delay.

The kneejerk reaction is that this is bad. If you actually read why, then you will know that this will he good. They are trying to include more professions in the bill. That is a good thing.

The first sex offenders registration law in the USA was passed in 1994 and 2003 in the UK and in the EU there are various laws, and I believe even in South Korea there is a law that was introduced in 2010. Japan is supposedly, one of the best countries in the world to live in, with good prosperity and relatively low crime rates, so I am baffled that this leading country is dragging its feet in introducing a sex offenders law. Why??

@Wallace

From your link:

Nikki’s mom, Melissa Ostman, overreacted when she found out her 16-year-old daughter was having sex with a 19-year-old, and called the police.

I stopped reading there because that is an utter lie. I saw interviews with the couple and that is absolutely not what happened. And this is so typical of the press, and a key reason why people are so damned confused.

He could have waited until Nikki came of age at 17.

That statement is evidence of a very horrific sickness going around; people expecting others to just wait and go without as if that ever happened much in human history. Everybody knows that teenagers are not just going to wait, because they never did. And now the law is being used to throw teenagers in jail and put them on a sex register list (which erodes their spouses' and children's quality of ife as well) and for what? Doing something cats and dogs do in the back yard within two years of their lives. Something natural and normal. One of the most basic and powerful drives of life there is.

What you are saying is not coming from a place of good, justice, or concern, clearly, but coming from a place more like scorn, jealousy, shadenfreude, and all sorts of other dark and evil places, including owning prison contractor stocks.

wake me up when its hankoe3x sealed and delivered

zzz Unserious business

Quite understandable that they delay it. If they applied it strictly, it would bring all the creepies out of the woodwork. Politicians, government workers, teachers, police officers, etc., etc.

Sex offender registries are nothing but hot garbage that only sound good if you don't bother to research how the idea plays out in the real world

Evaluating the benefit from a measure using metrics the measure is not meant to affect is a terribly obvious way to mislead people.

This bill is not directed to prevent first time offenders, nor the most common situation of child abuse (family members and friends of the victim) the measure is focused to prevent people that used his work position to facilitate abuse so they can't do it again. Even if this situation do not represent the majority of the cases, a measure the can prevent recurrence can still be a very positive development.

As described the bill do not make the names or other information of the people in the registry public, nor they limit their activities outside of their jobs, the main effect is just to make it extremely difficult for the people included to get a job close to the children because they would require a document proving they are not included as part of the requisites for them to be hired.

Abuses where people are found improperly guilty of sexual crimes would still happen with or without the bill so that is not an argument against it. It is an argument to improve the way these cases are handled.

Kato said she intends to "make progress while carefully listening to a variety of views" when asked about the prospects for the legislation

Is this code for taking things very very slowly?

Disgusting

That's REALLY BAD optics considering the Johnny debacle.

Not good action.

What so good about any real action from JGovt lately?

excellent point

It seems Japan loves pedophiles, pedophiles like Johnny. Very popular and loved across Japan, protected by media, family and law by the looks of it!

You beat me to it. It would certainly seem that way considering the way the Johnny debacle was ignored and swept under the rug for years in spite of the fact that everyone knew about it. And lets not even begin talking about the preteen idols...

First observation - Westerners are all too willing to throw their "rule of law" principles out the window when they hear the word "kids".

Second observation - and another country falls to this urge.

Third observation - not every country thinks laws should be things that are constantly expanded, especially repressive ones which this one is.

I am baffled that this leading country is dragging its feet in introducing a sex offenders law. Why??

Because the sex offender's registry has not only been a complete and utter failure in crime prevention and reduction in recidivism, its also been a draconian human rights nightmare.

Take the case of Frank and Nikki Rodriguez. They were very much in love and barely 3 years apart. But she was underage. Her mom got mad at him for something totally unrelated and reported him to police, despite months of approval of the relationship previous. Those two are married with children now and he STILL cannot take his own kids to the park.

Also, people get attacked for their name being on the list, which they can get on for mundane things, like walking naked past an open window in their own home.

The only people benefitting from the registry are prison and parole contractors. Even kids are suffering, such as Frank and Nikki's kids.

Sex offender registries are nothing but hot garbage that only sound good if you don't bother to research how the idea plays out in the real world. The idea is easy to abuse and is being abused by abusive scum that people foolishly trust in the name of "protect the children" and other bombastic nonsense.

Meanwhile the overwhelming majority of those commiting sex offenses against kids will be totally unknown until they are caught as has always been.

Also, this article is absurdly and dangerously vague. There are all sorts of sex offenses in the world, and those that don't involve children are not really related. Are we talking about those people too? People who once peed on the street when drunk and in a bad phase of their life?

Also also, sex offenders are the most successfully rehabilitated offenders.

So basically, this legislation will do nothing but make people "feel" safe when in fact, next to nothing has actually been accomplished.

Sadly, actually doing something positive about this problem would require more deep introspection than society can handle. I often try to tell people the most basic and rather obvious things about this issue, but they freak out instantly. Taboo makes people extra special dumb and dangerous too. Logic evaportes and emotions run rampant and it only makes things worse.

Chemically castrate all sex offenders

It seems Japan loves pedophiles, pedophiles like Johnny. Very popular and loved across Japan, protected by media, family and law by the looks of it!

No rule has been broken! The subject here is government delays bill, which means that sex offenders are able to CONTINUE working with children, thus pedophiles are allowed to have access to children by law! Meaning pedophiles are accepted in Japan society just like Johnny was!

Not good action.

What so good about any real action from JGovt lately?