Japan’s age of consent was raised from 13, among the many world’s lowest, to 16 years previous on Friday as lawmakers handed key reforms to intercourse crime laws.
The reforms, which additionally make clear rape prosecution necessities and criminalize voyeurism, cleared parliament’s higher home in a unanimous vote.
Campaigners welcomed the reforms, with the Tokyo-based group Human Rights Now calling them “a big step forward.”
The lifting of the age of consent in particular will “ship a message to society that sexual violence by adults towards kids is unacceptable,” the group mentioned in a press release.
The age of consent — beneath which sexual exercise is taken into account statutory rape — is 16 in Britain, 15 in France, and 14 in Germany and China.
Japan’s had been unchanged since 1907, with kids aged 13 and above deemed able to consent.
In follow nonetheless, throughout many components of the nation regional ordinances banning “lewd” acts with minors had been generally seen as successfully elevating the age of consent to 18.
Under the brand new regulation, teen {couples} not more than 5 years aside in age shall be exempt from prosecution if each companions are over 13.
Japan final revised its legal code on sexual offenses in 2017, for the primary time in additional than a century, however campaigners mentioned the reforms had been inadequate.
And in 2019, a string of acquittals in rape circumstances triggered nationwide rallies.
Under the earlier regulation, prosecutors needed to show victims had been incapacitated attributable to violence and intimidation.
Critics argued that requirement successfully blamed victims for not resisting sufficient.
Criminalizing voyeurism
The invoice that handed Friday comprises a listing of examples below which rape prosecutions could be made.
These embody victims being inebriated or medication, being frightened and perpetrators benefiting from social standing.
A justice ministry official advised AFP earlier this yr that the clarifications weren’t “meant to make it easier or harder” to safe rape convictions, however “will hopefully make court verdicts more consistent.”
The bill also contains a new “visitation request offence,” in response to the justice ministry.
It signifies that individuals who use intimidation, seduction or cash to coerce kids below 16 to satisfy for sexual functions will face a jail sentence of as much as a yr or a high quality of 500,000 yen ($3,500).
The reforms additionally embody language that for the primary time criminalizes voyeurism, which had solely been regulated by regional ordinances earlier than.
A penalty of as much as three years’ imprisonment or a high quality of as much as three million yen shall be imposed for secretly filming non-public physique components, underwear or indecent acts with no justifiable motive.
Tokyo resident Sohei Ikeda, 39, welcomed the reforms however mentioned he felt “Japan is quite late.”
But Natsuki Sunaga, a 22-year-old student, said she was skeptical that the reforms would stop people secretly filming others.
“I’m wondering even with a regulation towards voyeurism whether or not it can finish,” she mentioned. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
