Japan considers increasing age of consent to 16 following public outcry over rape acquittals.

The Japanese government has proposed raising the legal age of consent for sex from 13 to 16 years old, following the acquittal of multiple sexual offenders in 2019 which sparked public outrage. A panel of the Justice Ministry submitted the proposal on Friday which clarifies eight acts that constitute the victim’s lack of consent, such as intoxication, drug use, abuse of power, and psychological control. The new changes would make it illegal to engage in sexual intercourse with someone under the age of 16, however there would be an exception for intercourse between people who are at least 13 and those with an age gap of fewer than five years.

The panel also proposed making it illegal to secretly film someone’s undergarments and distribute the resulting photographs, as well as extending the statute of limitations for rape from 10 years to 15 years and for indecent assault resulting in injury from 15 years to 20 years. Japan currently has the lowest age of consent among developed nations since its enactment in 1907, while the age of consent in Germany and China is 14, 15 in France, and 16 in South Korea and most U.S. states.

In 2017, legislators revised Japan’s century-old rape law to include harsher penalties and other changes, however the reforms left intact controversial requirements that prosecutors must prove that violence or intimidation was involved or that the victim was “incapable of resistance”. A series of acquittals sparked outrage over the legal standard, which critics say places an unfairly high burden on victims, deterring them from coming forward and hurting their chances in court if they do.

In June 2019, sexual abuse victims and their supporters rallied in nine cities around Japan while holding flowers and placards with slogans such as #MeToo and #WithYou to protest against court acquittals of alleged rapists and urge reform of the nation’s anti-rape law. The #MeToo movement has been mostly subdued in Japan, and only 2.8 percent of sexual assault victims tell police, often for fear of being blamed themselves and publicly shamed. Many tell no one at all. A 2017 report by the government’s gender equality bureau showed nearly 60 percent of female victims of forced sex kept it to themselves.

Experts say the traditional view that women are responsible for protecting their chastity is behind the legal burden. Japan’s rape law was introduced before women could vote and its main intent was to protect family honor and pedigree, legal experts say. In March 2019, a court in Nagoya acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter. The judges concluded there was no evidence as to whether she had been unable to resist, but the ruling was later overturned in 2020 by a high court which sentenced the man to 10 years in prison.

The Japanese government has proposed raising the legal age of consent for sex to 16 years old in order to protect victims of sexual abuse and assault. The proposed changes would make it illegal to engage in sexual intercourse with someone under the age of 16, but there would be an exception for intercourse between people who are at least 13 and those with an age gap of fewer than five years. The panel also proposed making it illegal to secretly film someone’s undergarments and distribute the resulting photographs, as well as extending the statute of limitations for rape and indecent assault resulting in injury.

The #MeToo movement has been mostly subdued in Japan, however a series of acquittals sparked outrage over the legal standard which critics say places an unfairly high burden on victims. In June 2019, sexual abuse victims and their supporters rallied in nine cities around Japan to protest against court acquittals of alleged rapists and urge reform of the nation’s anti-rape law.

Experts say the traditional view that women are responsible for protecting their chastity is behind the legal burden. Japan’s rape law was introduced before women could vote and its main intent was to protect family honor and pedigree, legal experts say. In March 2019, a court in Nagoya acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter, but the ruling was later overturned in 2020 by a high court which sentenced the man to 10 years in prison.