TOKYO (TR) – Located in a residential space in Okubo, simply minutes from the Kabukicho red-light district in Shinjuku Ward, is Tokyo’s solely licensed nursery college providing 24-hour childcare.
The facility has been featured in quite a few media shops as a haven for folks fighting work and household commitments. However, that it turned the main target of undesirable consideration after a male employee, 40, was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing kids.
Not solely that, stories Shukan Shincho (Feb. 19), administration on the facility initially claimed that kids lodging complaints towards the suspect weren’t telling the reality.
“I didn’t do it”
According to police, Masaaki Kimura is suspected of touching the decrease half of the physique of the boy who was collaborating in a faculty discipline journey at a lodging facility in Nagano Prefecture in January 2024.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of non-consensual indecent assault, Kimura, who lives in Shinjuku, denied the costs. “I didn’t do it,” he stated.
The state of affairs got here to gentle 9 months after the incident.
“Last October, a parent of another boy contacted Tokyo Metropolitan Police to reporting that he had been touched in the genitals by a nursery school teacher,” a reporter on the police beat tells Shincho.
Obscene photos
After that, dozens of youngsters got here ahead with related claims. During the next investigation, a smartphone seized from Kimura was discovered to include roughly 1,200 obscene photos, together with roughly 360 items of kid pornography. Additionally, one other 850 photos had been of women and men.
The similar reporter says, “The focus of the investigation is to determine his motives for being unable to control his desires.”
An individual within the childcare business who is aware of Kimura tells Shincho that Kimura initially labored because the vice-director of an unlicensed daycare middle in Kabukicho.
“The center was a place where mothers who worked at nighttime restaurants and other establishments could leave their children,” the supply says. “He also dealt with mothers who had abandoned their children and didn’t come to pick them up. He had a really hard time.”
“Children are liars”
One afternoon a couple of days after Kimura’s arrest, a father or mother, having simply dropped off their daughter on the nursery college, expressed blended emotions.
“My husband and I both work in the restaurant business, so the night-time childcare is a lifesaver, and we’re grateful to the daycare teachers,” the father or mother says. “But…last October, when the parents of children complained to the daycare center about Kimura’s ‘crimes,’ the center defended Kimura. They even said, ‘The children are liars.’ While we’re angry at the center’s response, we have no choice but to rely on them. That’s the reality.”
The similar childcare business insider provides that the ability was working nearly usually each earlier than and after the incident.
“If a childcare worker were arrested for indecent conduct,” the supply says, “they could consider temporarily closing the facility, but that would mean families needing 24-hour childcare would be unable to function. I believe that prioritizing these circumstances led to lax management of the childcare worker’s working hours and, ultimately, to overlooking the child’s despicable behavior.”