Japan to seek cutting legal age of adulthood to 18 next year

November 7, 2017

TOKYO- The government will seek to lower the age of majority in Japan from 20 to 18 during the ordinary session of parliament to be convened in January next year.

If approved, the planned change is expected to take effect in 2022 at the earliest after a transition period of around three years.

In 2009, the Legislative Council, an advisory panel to the justice minister, proposed an amendment to the Civil Code to lower the legal age of adulthood to 18 to facilitate greater youth participation in politics and bring Japan into line with other developed countries.

In 2015, the voting age was lowered to 18 under the revised public offices election law. Teenagers cast ballots in a national election for the first time in the election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, in July 2016.

The Civil Code amendment was to be submitted to the extraordinary session of parliament this autumn, but the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, for the Oct. 22 election, on the opening day of the session aborted the plan. The lowering of the adulthood age is expected to be delayed from the initially envisaged time of as early as 2021.

The planned amendment would allow 18- and 19-year-olds to marry and sign contracts to buy high-priced goods and services without parental consent.

But the government is expected to maintain the minimum age for smoking and drinking at 20 to avoid damage to the health of young people and high school education.

The government also plans to uphold the starting age for publicly managed gambling at 20, chiefly due to strong concern over young people's vulnerability to gambling addiction.

The advisory panel is discussing whether the juvenile law should be revised to lower the age of criminal adulthood from 20 to 18. Jiji Press