The World Briefly

February 27, 2023

Recognizing Children

Japan

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Japan is planning to raise the country’s age of consent from 13 years old to 16, as part of a major overhaul of sex crime legislation, Agence France-Presse reported.

The country has currently the lowest age of consent among the Group of Seven industrialized nations, which has stayed unchanged since its enactment in 1907.

The proposed changes follow a string of rape acquittals that sparked outrage in Japan.

Under current laws, children aged at least 13 years old are considered capable of giving consent, which means that sexual activity involving them is not considered statutory rape.

However, critics said that teen survivors face the same high bars to prosecuting perpetrators that adults do. Many regions have local laws banning “lewd” acts with people up to the age of 18, but perpetrators in these cases usually face much lighter penalties than those charged with rape and the present legislation allows them to “shift blame to the victims, and argue that sex was initiated or enjoyed by the children,” they added.

One contentious requirement in the current law is that prosecutors must prove those accused of rape used “violence and intimidation” to incapacitate victims. Human rights groups countered that such a requirement effectively blames the victim for not resisting enough, adding that survivors can also freeze or submit during assaults to avoid injury.

The changes would raise the age of consent but would not alter the “violence and intimidation” wording. Instead, officials said that other factors would be added, including drugging, catching victims off-guard, and psychologically controlling them.

The new legal package also plans to lengthen the statute of limitations for sexual violence against minors, to allow them more time to come forward.

Human rights advocates welcomed the proposed reform but cautioned that it “still fails to meet international rape legislation standards.”

This story originally appeared in the February 27, 2023 newsletter, Man and Country.