Amid a spate of malicious cases, the welfare ministry on Thursday began sharing information with local municipalities about babysitters who have been subjected to administrative action for sexual assault or abuse, with a goal of preventing similar incidents from happening.
Under the new system, municipalities will report to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare the name, address and type of disciplinary measure for babysitters who have been penalized. A list will then be uploaded on a special website that will be accessible for all relevant local officials.
Although municipalities currently publish on their respective websites the names of babysitters who have faced disciplinary action, along with details of their offenses, that information is generally not shared across municipal boundaries.
Parents and guardians can currently look for information on babysitters from across the nation on a single website operated by the central government, called "Koko de sa-chi." By next summer at the earliest, the government plans to also include disciplinary information on the website.
Babysitters who work as freelancers are required to register as "unlicensed day-care facilities" with their local governments and they can be subjected to disciplinary action for any malicious behavior.
However, the lack of information-sharing had previously raised criticism that babysitters who have faced discipline may be able to find work in other municipalities.
The move comes after a former babysitter was sentenced in August to a prison term of 20 years over rape and other indecent acts on 20 boys between the ages of 5 and 11.
According to the Tokyo District Court ruling, he had committed the acts in the prefectures of Tokyo, Ibaraki, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, and Hiroshima.