Gov’t adopts bills to lower adult age to 18

March 13, 2018

Tokyo- The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted on Tuesday bills to amend the Civil Code and other laws to lower Japan's adult age from 20 to 18.

The Abe government plans to introduce the bills, including ones to maintain the ban on drinking, smoking and gambling by people under 20, to the ongoing ordinary session of the Diet for enactment.

If the bills are passed into law, the new adult age will be implemented on April 1, 2022, to mark the first change in the definition of adult in the country's modern period.

If the adult age is lowered, financially independent 18- and 19-year-olds will be able to take out loans and have credit cards without consent from their parents or proxies.

In a bid to prevent those new adults from getting into financial difficulties through problematic transactions, the government has already introduced an amendment bill to the consumer contract law with a new clause enabling adults to cancel deals they felt pressured into signing.

The to-be-proposed law revisions will also allow people to apply for 10-year passports and those with gender dysphoria to file for family court proceedings to change their registered sex when they turn 18, while lifting women's legal age for marriage from 16 to 18 to make the age equal to men's.

To maintain the legal age at 20 for drinking, smoking and betting on publicly organized races after the adult age is lowered, relevant amendments stipulate those acts are not allowed for "people under 20," instead of "minors" in the existing laws.

Meanwhile, the government decided to leave intact a clause in the Imperial House Law setting the adult age at 18 for the emperor, crown prince and the eldest grandson of the emperor. Initially, the government planned to scrap the clause after the adult age under the Civil Code is brought down. But it decided not to do so after taking into account opinions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

On the idea of lowering the minimum age eligible for protection under the juvenile law from 20 to 18, opinions still vary within the government and the ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito. The Legislative Council, which advises the justice minister, will continue discussions on the matter.

Japan's voting age was lowered from 20 to 18 in 2016, after the council recommended in 2009 that the government bring down the country's adult age to 18 to follow a global trend and promote young people's participation in political activities. Jiji Press