The exact nature of the age of consent in Japan is something that crops up conversations about the country, and people often seem unsure of the facts.
As the Asahi clarifies, “anyone having sex with a minor under 13 can be arrested for statutory rape under the Criminal Law, but charging someone with sex crimes for having intercourse with a person over the age of 13 requires proof of violent action or threats.”
There are now growing calls for the age of consent to be raised from 13 to 16, as reported by Unseen Japan. Concretely, these include a proposal in June from Human Rights Now to raise the age of consent and tighten guidelines on what constitutes sexual assault, while a student group Your Voice Matters launched a petition that attracted 40,000 signatures and was submitted to the Justice Ministry in November.
Related hashtags on Twitter have also gained some traction, though the influence they will have on the Sex Crimes Review Committee as it completes its review of the current law is debatable.
