A 30-year-old male babysitter has been arrested on suspicion of committing obscene acts on a 5-year-old girl, police said.
The suspect, Ken Arai, was hired as a babysitter in April, Fuji TV reported. He is accused of committing sexually lewd acts against the girl while babysitting her at her family’s apartment in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward and also at a public toilet in a park where he took her for a walk.
Police said the girl’s mother hired him on eight occasions in April and May because she had to work and the daycare center she used wasn’t open due to the coronavirus.
Police said Arai, who was arrested on June 12, has a nursery school and kindergarten teacher certification and registered his services on a babysitting app in July 2018. He had since received work on multiple occasions to take care of children. Police said Arai has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying he couldn’t control his feelings.
Another male babysitter, Akinori Hashimoto, 28, who was registered on the same smartphone app, was arrested for sexually assaulting at least three young boys.
Police said the app was discontinued on June 4.
© Japan Today
38 Comments
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Do the hustle
Is it any wonder these babysitting services are not so popular in Japan? Sadly, I fear his punishment will not match the massive breach of trust he has perpetrated. I also have no doubt this is not the first time he has carried out lewd acts with young children. Men like this are the lowest scum of the Earth! A public flogging would be too good for him.
Vince Black
Castrate him.
Fighto!
Chemical castration, then 40 years in prison.
Speed
Well, guess these two bozos set babysitting back another 30 years here.
smithinjapan
I've always pushed for more babysitting in Japan. There is far too much burden placed on families to send kids to overpriced and under qualified daycare services, or with grandparents, or the CONSTANT stories about moms and/or dads going out to the store and leaving kids in cars or at home to find them dead, etc. Babysitting is a cheaper alternative, gives parents time off and/or to do what they need to do, and might even give the neighborhood teen or young adult some responsibility and spending money.
But then you read about this... Obviously castration and certainly the death penalty are ridiculous penalties and should not be espoused at all, but certainly chemical castration while incarcerated and on probably after, and that incarceration should be long, long, long. And after that, the people need to be put on databases and tracked at all times.
Goodlucktoyou
Castrate them! and investigate everyone who used the app.
Bjorn Tomention
Sick peopke doing this stuff terrible
timeon
We used Kids Line many times, useful and easy to use, but quite pricey and they have been very busy in recent years. We chose carefully the babysitters though. They are out of business now, and many families are desperate to balance work and children
that person
@oldman
you must really be a very old man with this kind of archaic mentally that women who are not home with their kids are lazy. Welcome to the 21st century, where women do work
@concerned citizen
Most sexual abuse against minors is committed by someone they know.
Bugle Boy of Company B
There's also Spartacus: Blood and Sand style (Segovax's castration and crucification)
Jonathan Prin
@Vanillasludge
Best baby sitter is the one neighbour young girl (starting 16) you' ve known for years and guess with common sense that she can manage babies/children well enough.
Needing a degree shows how out society has become. Same if you don't know your neighbours enough.
Toshihiro
thank goodness for that. they're making child predators' jobs too easy. The only solution I see for daycare needs at a time like this is to call for nearby and hopefully willing to help relatives.
GW
This is really sad to hear about....child abuse just seems to be more prevalent in Japan than where I am from.... As a teen I used to make a few $$ babysitting neighbours kids, was usually a pretty good gig, was all done pretty much on the street where I lived & if things every got out of hand the idea was baby sitters could simply ring their homes & call mom\dad if anything happened. Where I grew up pretty much everyone hired local teens to do this. Pet sitting also common or you would have house keys, go over twice a day to feed pets & clean any messes, walk dogs etc.
Seems Japan cant do any of this for the most part.....
Concerned Citizen
@that person
Thanks for pointing this out. I do understand that, which I why I added 'and could trust them with their life'.
We know multitudes of people, but would entrust our kid's only to a few who we can trust 100%.
kohakuebisu
If he was qualified, you can't blame the parents for hiring him. There's a fair chance the company who hired him were not at fault either.
The main thing is that the same guy is prevented from working with children again. No different authorities with different records, no changing his name, no nothing. What's done is done, but the ball is now in the authorities' court to ensure that never happens again at the hands of this man.
JJ Jetplane
While not all men are sick perverts, stories like these are why we find it so strange to employ a male babysitter.
starpunk
Gender doesn't matter. In my hometown a female babysitter orally raped a baby girl and sent footage of it in an email to her boyfriend. She's now serving a 17 year sentence.
You sort of answered your own question. And for the jive 'couldn't control his feelings', that's a sick lame excuse. Either way, people who do such disgusting acts are total scum - whether the pedo is male or female. There are no boundaries. And there are no excuses either.
sir_bentley28
Discontinuing the app doesn't really help this situation. How about a systematically detailed background check of each applicant before being registered as a babysitter? Just throwing out ideas!
Zaphod
moonbloom
I have no sympathy for porn, but perversion and sex crimes existed before that became widely available. Chicken or egg?
Blitzwing
Agreed on the camera. Don't forget, women can be child molesters too.
darkaura
thepersoniamnow
AustPaul
I hear in Aus, males are not allowed to teach young kindergarten and other children because of “sex abuse”
I think a law like that is also harmful, and sets a bad precedent.
That being said, this guy really should never been allowed near children again!
rcch
the best “babysitter” we can possibly find is the kid,s grandma or grandpa, our moms and dads. excuse me but when we,re parents, we cannot blink... since day one, 24/7 !
darkaura
Oh and one more thing I forgot. When I'm at my kindergartens, and if some stranger tries to hurt the children there, I will be one of the first people to defend that child with my life. I watch them like a hawk when I can and that will never change.
shogun36
sigh.............where is the mandatory sexual predator list? Where is the putting these people on blast all over social media so people know who they are? Come on now.
darkaura
Sorry about my previous post first time I've tried to post a quote.
AustPaul
Absolutely disgusting.
Im hoping Japan has something similar to Australia where you need to have a Police clearance to work with children, I’d assume he would being a teacher but still..
darkaura
I use to babysit when I was younger. I also work at 5 kindergartens. I'm also 40 years old. The children at my kindergarten trust me to the point where a girl who didn't like going to men, actually came to me and stuck to me. The teachers were so surprised. The teachers trust me, too. How anyone could do this is beyond me I love children so much, that even thinking of anyone who did stuff like this to children makes me sick. Children are so innocent and trusting it's hard to believe that anyone would do this.
Concerned Citizen
Our children are our most priceless possession. It's our policy to never leave them with anyone we don't personally know and could trust them with their life.
AustPaul
Why the down vote? I only said I hope they have a vetting system up there as they do here to hopefully prevent this type of thing..
@theperson
I am not aware of that, there is no rule or law stating male teachers can’t teach kindy or young kids, although most teachers of younger kids are female.
moonbloom
Seems Japan cant do any of this for the most part.....
Hard to do when the male population is conditioned from a young age to view young girls in a sexual context.
Raw Beer
I would never hire a male babysitter. Why would a man want to be a baby sitter?
Vanillasludge
“30 year old male babysitter” says a lot right there.
moonbloom
People again don't want to address one of the main roots for this type of sickness- obscene images of sexual acts performed on minors, in other words pornography. Goes without saying porn is also deeply related to the chikan culture, as well as rapes.
The popularity of porn normalizes fetishization, and from there not only the crimes, but a reluctance to mete out tougher sentences.
oldman-13
that person - it's common knowledge that hiring a babysitter is risky. If you feel comfortable leaving your children with a stranger, by all means go ahead. It is mother neglect of her children, who cares about her job.