Japan is set to lower the legal age of adulthood. How will young people be affected?

March 21, 2022 Japan Crime & Legal

From April, those age 18 and 19 in Japan will legally become adults and will be given more freedom in making life choices without parental consent — albeit not without criminal responsibilities, due to planned amendments to the Civil Code and Juvenile Law.

What will be changed in this legislation and how will those changes affect the late teens? Why will 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds be viewed as adults? How harsh will punishment for transgressions by such young adults be?

Here we take a look at the planned amendments in more detail.

What kind of changes affecting people under 20 will come into force in April?

The government plans to lower the legal age of adulthood to 18. This will involve revisions to Japan’s Civil Code and Juvenile Law. The revisions will take effect on April 1.

With the changes, 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds, who until now have been legally viewed as minors, will be able to enter into a contract without parental consent. Such contracts would include purchasing a cell phone, taking out a car loan, signing an apartment lease and signing up for credit cards.

Under existing laws, minors — 18-year-old men and 16-year-old women — have been allowed to tie the knot with their guardians’ consent, but the provision for marriage by minors will be removed in April. After that, men and women who turn 18 can get married only without the consent of others.

The revisions will also lower the age threshold to legally change one’s gender from 20 to 18.

A teacher explains the new legal age of adulthood to high school students in Osaka Prefecture in February. | KYODO
A teacher explains the new legal age of adulthood to high school students in Osaka Prefecture in February. | KYODO
Young adults age 18 and 19 will be able to acquire a passport for a maximum period of 10 years, whereas children under the age of 18 will receive a passport valid for 5 years.

However, the legal age for buying alcohol and cigarettes as well as for gambling will remain at 20. In Japan, most forms of gambling are banned in principle under the Criminal Code. There are several public gambling options, including betting on horse racing and certain motorsports, which are legally permissible.

How will the amendment to the juvenile law impact young people under 20?

The amendment to the Juvenile Law, meanwhile, will result in stricter punishments for young offenders.

Starting from April, those age 18 and 19 will be regarded as specified juveniles under criminal law. As such, they may be sent from family courts, which normally handle cases of juvenile delinquents, to prosecutors for criminal trials. Under the current regulations, only cases involving children age 16 and over whose intentional acts have resulted in someone’s death have been subjected to criminal trials.

Following the revisions, recommendations for custodial sentencing for a given offense will be made separately for children under the age of 17 and for the young people who will soon be considered adults. Those age 17 and under will only be given prison sentences of up to 15 years while such sentences for defendants age 18 or over could be extended up to 30 years.

Under the current statute, homicide is the only criminal charge for which minors are subject to prosecution. The revised law will expand that to include robbery, rape, arson and other offenses punishable by imprisonment of at least one year, with the possibility of facing the death penalty for serious crimes.

The government will also lift a ban on disclosure by media outlets of photographs of juvenile offenders and their real names. The disclosure of such information would be permitted once an offender is formally indicted. The ban will still apply to those under the age of 18.

Why has the government decided to lower the age of adulthood?

The constitutional referendum law, revised in 2014, stipulated that the age threshold to vote in referendums would be set at 18 in 2018.

Japan lowered the minimum voting age in the nation’s noncompulsory electoral system from 20 to 18 in June 2016. The move was aimed at raising political awareness among young people and increasing voter turnout.

Lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party discuss revising the legal age of majority in Tokyo in 2015. | KYODO
Lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democrati