Definition of Adult

Forced by political pressure to make young generation involved in politics, Ministry of Justice embarks on a consideration for lowering the age of adult. It is going to submit a draft of revised Civil Code to lowering the age of adult from twenty to eighteen to the ordinary Diet session next year. Having three years of notification, Japan will change the definition of adult as soon as 2020.

Lowering the age of adult has been one of the basic talking points for years in the discussion of constitutional amendment. Constitutional Amendment Referendum Act 2007 was revised in 2014 to vest voting right on the people in the age of eighteen and nineteen. With an argument that there should not be a difference in voting rights between constitutional amendment and ordinary elections, the Diet passed revised Public Officers Election Act last year to let those ages of people vote in every election. The election of House of Councillors this July was the first one exercised under new definition of eligible voters.

Having lowered the age of eligible voters, there came up an argument over when a child becomes adult. Civil Code still determines that adult is a person in the age of twenty or older. To accelerate the process of constitutional amendment, conservative lawmakers, though frustrated with naïve teenagers, demanded lowering the age of adult to generate legal coherence.

When the age is lowered, people in the age of eighteen and nineteen can make a contract for credit card or housing loan. While there is a concern that some unscrupulous business may target those innocent young people, lawmakers are arguing early grown-up of recent teenagers with rich information in Japanese society helped by broad prevalence of social media. Consumers Agency assumes some measures will be needed in commercial contracts with young agers, including obligation of detailed informing about contract, restricting excessive canvass, settling consultation offices for young agers or education for commercial activities.

So, how about crimes? Juvenile Act assumes that the people under the age of adult cannot drink or smoke. Although most young agers experience drinking or smoking before the age, legal experts in Japan sincerely discuss negative impact of those activities on health or civil society. However, the fact that most developed countries have already lowered the age to eighteen also accelerate the discussion. It is still unclear that the Japanese will become a matured nation with increasing adult.