Japan approves bill to raise age of consent from 13 to 16
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Loading... - Tracy Lwanga
- 15 Mar 2023
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Japan’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill to amend the country’s Penal Code regarding the age of sexual consent and a range of sexual offense charges.
According to the bill aimed to be passed during the current parliamentary session, the age of sexual consent in Japan will be raised from 13 to 16.
Sex with children under the age of 16 will be criminalized by raising the legal age of consent, with Japan having long been under pressure from child consultation centers here which deal with abuse, as well as international human rights organizations, for the legal age of consent to be raised.
The age of sexual consent in Japan has not been legally raised from 13 since its enactment in 1907. The age of consent in this country has been one of the lowest in the industrialized world for many decades.
The amendment to the current law will make having sex with a child under 16 illegal, regardless of whether the act was consensual.
In 2017, Japan, inexplicably, according to welfare and counseling centers dealing with the issue, as well as a host of lawyers and legal institutions, renamed the crime of “rape” to “forcible sexual intercourse”.
The new amendments, however, will see this redressed, and criminal recognition will be given to an act of sexual violation, even when coercion or physical violence is not used.
The sexual offenses charges being renamed in the amendments will better clarify non-consensual sex as being illegal. Read More…
