Japan raises age of sexual consent to 16, redefines rape

Japanese lawmakers implemented regulation Friday that raises the national age of consent from 13 to 16 and rewrites how the country defines sex crimes.

The change was long sought by members of the public, rewriting a law that has been unchanged since 1907. Japan had the lowest age of consent in the developed world, though in practice regional laws overrode the national figure.

The new sex crime law makes it easier to charge an assailant with rape, making any sexual activity without consent considered rape and bringing the law into line with most other countries worldwide. The previous law also required the use of force, which was removed in the new language.

This law would now define situations in which a victim is not able to consent due to intoxication or unconsciousness as rape, as well as situations in which minors are groomed by authority figures, like in American and European law.

Japanese sexual assault law had a notoriously high bar for prosecution, leading many perpetrators not to be punished for their actions. 

In response to the bill’s passage, lawyer Kazuko Ito, who specializes in representing sexual assault victims, lauded the new regulation.

“It is highly significant that the victims who have been excluded from justice are now within the scope of legal remedies and punishments,” she said at a press conference Friday.

In Japan’s prefectures, equivalent to American states, the lowest age of consent was already at 16 years old. The age of consent in Tokyo remains at 18.

Another recent modernization of the sex crime law in 2017 allowed men to be considered victims of rape for the first time and again clarified the crime’s definition.

The 2023 law change also extends the statute of limitations for filing rape charges to 15 years from 10, and increases penalties for groping minors and sexual exploitation via manipulation on the internet.

There are exceptions in the law, however, in which it would be legal for 13 to 15-year-olds to have sex with a partner who is less than five years older than them. 

Canada passed a similar law in 2008 raising its own age of consent to 16 with a “similar-in-age” clause, also updating a century-old law. Now, Germany and Italy have the lowest ages of consent in the developed world at 14 years old.