Yesterday, Japan's parliament passed a law raising the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16, replacing a standard that had remained unchanged for over a century and was among the lowest worldwide. The move reflects ongoing calls for stronger legal protections for children and women and is part of a wider revision of laws on sexual offences.
On the same day, the Diet also approved separate legislation aimed at increasing public awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, though activists criticised it for not guaranteeing equal rights for sexual minorities. Changes to sexual crime laws have advanced slowly in Japan, where men have traditionally dominated legislative and judicial institutions. The criminal code was last revised in 2017, marking the first update to sexual crime statutes in 110 years. Since then, a series of acquittals in sexual assault cases, along with growing concern over non-consensual sexual imagery involving girls and women, has fuelled public anger and added momentum to the latest changes.