Current Events > Japan to lower age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in 2022 to be more like the USA.

(+) Yeah! (+)

From April 2022, the age of majority, or the age one is considered a legal adult, in Japan will lower from 20 to 18. While this leaves the status of important annual rituals such as coming-of-age ceremonies in limbo, the shift will allow younger people a wider range of privileges such as the ability to vote, own a passport, and apply for a credit card.

However, the implications of the shift will also reverberate in another important part of Japanese society: juvenile criminal law.

Recently, the Abe administration has entered a round of inner party discussions over amending a law protecting the privacy of juvenile criminals. In prior years, if the perpetrator of a serious crime was younger than the age of 20, their names as well as photos were censored from mass media. Given the governments push to lower the age of legal adulthood to 18, it comes to no surprise that the age threshold for withholding a criminals name from the news will be lowered as well.

While whether or not one believes teenagers should be tried as adults is dependent on ones views on child development and crime. And depending on ones own individual opinion for the treatment of criminals, the removal of name concealment for criminals aged 18 and 19 may seem either fair or unethical.

In Japan, similar to many other countries, minors are sent to a correctional facility for education and rehabilitation.

Another important topic to consider beyond the concealment of names for juvenile criminals is the vice versa: the concealment of victim names.

Though theres no way to tell what would be the consequences of this amendment, we can only wait and observe what will happen in the upcoming years as Japans new age threshold for legal adulthood comes into full motion.

Full Article: https://japantoday.com/category/crime/amending-japanese-crime-law-names-of-18-and-19-year-old-criminals-to-no-longer-be-concealed
https://i.imgur.com/QfdOPRu.jpg

That means Yuna from FFX-2 would be finally considered an adult in law in Japan
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IIRC it was only a year or two ago that Japan started letting 18 y/os vote

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FL81 posted...

IIRC it was only a year or two ago that Japan started letting 18 y/os vote

That's going to be a big deal.

Japan has the largest elderly population in the world per capita and they lean conserbative.

The younger generation doesn't.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnEmyq-0sA
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