Japan raises age of consent for sex from 13 to 16, redefines rape in milestone law change
The law revision also criminalises photo voyeurism and the online grooming of children. Read more at straitstimes.com.
The age bit here isn't a big deal. This just catches national law up to the already lower end of prefectural laws (all 16 to 18 I think). The bigger change is that the victim no longer needs to prove they physically fought back for it to be considered non-consentual.
The fact that age of consent was 13 in a developed nation is a good reminder that as far as we've come, human kind as a whole still has a long way to go.
Every prefecture had already raised the local age of consent to at least 16, several are at 18. So this is just the national level playing catch up.
No, it's the change to the rape definition that makes all the difference here. It's a massive change for the better.
But how does prosecution work in Japan? When is it national jurisdiction? It does matter.
Woah, 13?! Dawm
Like others have been saying, that was more of a technicality than a reality, as the actual age for every prefecture was already 16-18, with ages lower than 18 generally only being permissible in a legal marriage approved of by the parents (If I'm remembering right).
It's kind of like if in the US, the Federal age of consent was 13, but all 50 states and every territory had already raised it to 16 to 18, meaning the real age of consent was basically 18, it's just that congress was too lazy or distracting to update the federal law to what all the states and territories had already passed.
