On March 17, a two-year-old boy was found dead in a babysitter's apartment in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture. The victim's 22-year-old mother had found the babysitter through an online intermediary site and hired him to care for the boy and his eight-month-old brother from March 14 through 16. This case underlines a need for the government sector to regulate and raise the quality of babysitting services, which many mothers turn to due to a shortage of nurseries.
After failing to make contact with the babysitter, the mother turned to the police on March 16. When a police officer entered the babysitter's apartment, the two-year-old boy was discovered naked and dead on his back with bruises around his nose and mouth. The younger boy was unharmed but was also naked. The police arrested the 26-year-old babysitter, Yuji Motte, on suspicion of abandoning a dead body. It was later discovered that Motte used a false name and asked another man to pick the two boys at the Shin Sugita station on the JR Negishi Line in Isogo Ward, Yokohama.
Currently anyone can work as a babysitter without formal qualifications and no state or prefectural qualifying examinations exist. In contrast, a person who wants to become a nursery school teacher must pass a prefectural government examination. Under the Child Welfare Law, a person who takes five or less children under his or her care is not required to notify their municipal or prefectural government. This situation greatly increases the possibility that people may entrust their children to people who cannot adequately care for them or pose a danger to them.