Japan Changes The Age Of Sexual Consent For The First Time In Over A Century, From 13 To 16

On Friday, June 16, Japan’s parliament changed the age of sexual consent in the country for the first time in over a century as part of their ongoing reforms to crack down on sex crimes.

For the past hundred-plus years, the age of consent in Japan was one of the lowest in the world at 13. Only a couple of countries — such as Angola and Comoros, whose ages of consent are 12 and 13 respectively — had the same or lower ages of sexual consent.

The revision to Japan’s law raised the age of consent to 16, which is still lower than many countries but a marked improvement from 13. Along with this revision, other laws were passed on Friday in regard to sex crimes in the country, such as a new law that “increases awareness of LGBTQ+ issues” to provide more equal rights for sexual minorities.

While many are happy with the developments being made in a country notorious for being slow in providing strict punishment to those that commit sex crimes, others don’t think that it’s enough. In recent years, acquittals in cases of sexual abuse and the increased occurrence of sexual images taken of girls and non-consenting women has created outrage that has finally led to these changes being made.

Additionally, a recent case of a father raping his 19-year-old daughter and being acquitted because she “did not give her consent, but did not resist violently” also led to protests that sparked the parliament’s actions to make changes to sexual crime laws.

With the new age of sexual consent, sexual intercourse with anyone under the age of 16 is now legally considered rape. They’ve also banned the filming, distribution, and possession of sexually exploitative images taken without consent, and the statute of limitations for sex crimes was increased from five to ten years.

While support of LGBTQ+ rights and legal protection has grown in the Japanese general public over the years, opposition remains in the Liberal Democratic Party in the country, which is known to be conservative and reluctant to provide actual equal rights to sexual minority groups. Because of this, increased reforms to help protect minorities and victims of sex crimes may be slow to come about even though these changes were made.

Netizens have mixed reactions to the news.

That is a great move. Hope it will stop pedophile tourism in Japan.

— SankiBat (@SankiBat) June 16, 2023

cool, but now the age went from 13 to 16.

Meanwhile the rest of the world has 16-18+ for consent.

While this is a good step, it’s nowhere near what’s needed.

— Curtis Barnes (@Cbarnes_30) June 16, 2023

Finally some good news

— Sawyer Aiken (@sawyeraiken) June 16, 2023

idc if the age of consent part is just a formality, it was still better to move it up than keep it sitting at 13

— MewJAM (@MewJAM_) June 16, 2023

the age of consent was 13 before this?!?!

— ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ (@e4mlk) June 16, 2023

i still dont understand whats stopping them to bump it up to 18

— Meth and Men Addict Piccolo (@PiccoloMeth) June 17, 2023

Really good to see this first step being taken

— ✨Sofia ‘the rock’ Johnson✨ (@sofiameows) June 16, 2023

At least this is a step in the right direction, and hopefully it will have a domino effect of more good changes made to Japan’s legal system in the near future.