Foster care staff axed for having sex with residents

The Japan Times
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006
Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060822a5.html

SAITAMA (Kyodo) Two employees at a private foster home in Saitama Prefecture were fired after they were found to have had sexual relations with teenagers admitted to the facility in 2004 and 2005, Saitama Prefectural Government officials said Monday.

A male employee in his late 20s was found to have had a sexual relationship with a female high school student at the home from April 2004 to April 2005, when the girl finally told other staff at the facility about the relationship. The man was dismissed in May 2005, the officials said.

Another former employee, identified only as a woman, was having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy at the foster home around the same time. Two employees who helped arrange outside meetings between the two were also dismissed.

The prefectural government began an investigation in July and issued a warning to the facility, ordering it to submit a written plan by the end of this month to improve conditions, including measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents, and to provide psychological care to residents.

The prefectural government has also found that a number of employees at the facility had been beating residents as well.

"We regret that two employees had sexual relationships with children at the facility. . . . We will take thorough measures to prevent a recurrence," a prefectural official in charge of child safety said.

Foster homes take in kids age 2 to 18.

The Japan Times
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Caretaker fired over molestation of teenager

The Yomiuri Shimbun
August 22, 2006
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20060822TDY02004.htm

A 29-year-old caretaker at a children's nursing home in Saitama Prefecture, was dismissed after an investigation revealed she had had a sexual relationship with a teenage boy there, it was learned Monday.

The nursing home received a warning from the prefectural government over the incident, based on the Child Welfare Law.

The case came to light after the boy reported the incident in June, according to the prefectural government. The subsequent prefectural investigation conducted in July found the caretaker had had a sexual relationship with the boy for more than 18 months.

In addition to this case, eight staff at the home, including the caretaker and several instructors, are believed to have physically abused children under their care for 10 years. The abuse reportedly included slapping children in the face.

In April, 2005, a 26-year-old caretaker at the home was found to have had a sexual relationship at his home with a teenage girl under his care. He was dismissed in May 2005.

About 40 children aged between 3 and 18 are cared for at the home.

(Aug. 22, 2006)

Children's home warned over nurse's sexual relationship with boy

The Mainichi Shimbun
August 21, 2006
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060821p2a00m0na010000c.html

SAITAMA -- A children's institution in western Saitama Prefecture was handed a prefectural improvement order after a 29-year-old nurse engaged in a sexual relationship with a boy at the facility, it has been learned.

The Saitama Prefectural Government handed the facility the order to improve its operations under the Child Welfare Law.

It has also emerged that a 26-year-old male worker at the facility had a sexual relationship with a girl there in 2004. The facility has sacked four workers over the incidents, including the nurse and the 26-year-old worker.

Prefectural officials said that between 2004 and about April last year, the nurse summoned the boy to her home when she wasn't working, and had a sexual relationship with him. When the boy didn't comply with her requests, she reportedly kicked and bit him when he had returned to the facility.

Officials said that sometimes the nurse had another worker deliver the boy to her home in an official vehicle. Her alleged actions were uncovered after the boy talked with a worker at the facility at the end of June this year.

The 26-year-old male worker reportedly started a sexual relationship with a girl at the facility after she started coming to his home from February 2004. The relationship was uncovered after the girl approached a female worker in April last year.

"I liked him at first, but I got scared," the girl was quoted as saying. (Mainichi)

August 21, 2006

A sign some are cross after decidedly unholy hanky-panky goes on in Christian-run home

The Mainichi Shimbun: Waiwai transcript from Shukan Shincho (8/31)
August 28, 2006
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20060828p2g00m0dm017000c.html

Japan has been rocked by news that a veteran caregiver who virtually raised an abused boy at a children's home lured him into a tempestuous sexual relationship, according to Shukan Shincho (8/31).

The weekly does not identify either the 29-year-old nurse, or the Saitama Prefecture children's home where she worked and the boy she seduced grew up.

But it does note that it is a Christian-run facility funded by taxpayers.

"The nurse who had the sexual relationship with the schoolboy started working there in 1999. She was a highly experienced nurse," a spokesman for the Saitama Prefectural Government's Child Safety Section tells Shukan Shincho. "The boy had been in the home from infancy and she treated him as though he were her own child. But, as the boy grew up, the affection she had felt for him turned into love."

She apparently lured him into having sex about two years ago.

"The boy found himself a girlfriend and the nurse responded by kicking and biting him," the government official says.

The home was originally founded to take care of war orphans, and later changed to become a supposed safe haven for abused children. It's funded by the national and Saitama governments, with each child in its care costing taxpayers 3 million yen a year.

Becoming a nurse at the home requires a qualification, such as passing a government-run exam or graduation from a training institution. Nurses are required to live at the home, and it's not unheard of for them to become involved with their charges in a manner way more intimately than is expected of them.

In fact, the same Saitama home is now coming under pressure because a couple of years ago, one of its male officials was sacked for having sex with a schoolgirl living there.

"When the guy was fired, the nurse realized her relationship with the boy was a bit risky and she pulled the plug on it in April last year," the government official tells Shukan Shincho. "The relationship was exposed after the nurse and the boy had a huge fight over him having found a girlfriend. The upshot of that argument was that some time in June, the boy reported the nurse to another official at the home." (By Ryann Connell)

WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The Mainichi Daily News cannot be held responsible for the contents of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the Mainichi Daily News or Mainichi Newspapers Co.