Legal Sex crime law reform: age of consent in Japan raised from 13 to 16

Yesterday, Japan's House of Councillors unanimously enacted laws to criminalise non-consensual sexual acts, even without physical violence or coercion, and to raise the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 to protect children from abuse.

The revisions are partly intended to better clarify the illegality of nonconsensual sexual offenses such as rape. Rape was renamed "forcible sexual intercourse" when Japan revised its Penal Code in 2017. Sexual acts conducted in situations where a person may struggle to "form, express or fulfill the intention to resist" will also be subject to potential punishment, the revised laws said. [...] The move comes amid concerns over inconsistencies in the verdicts reached by courts and investigative authorities in a series of sexual offense cases, leading to the supporters of victims in such cases to call for legal reform.

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The revised laws also criminalise sex with children under 16, raising the legal age of consent from 13, which had remained unchanged for over a century and was one of the lowest among developed nations. While the changes will make sexual intercourse with a person under 16 illegal regardless of consent, an exception will be made for cases in which an individual aged 13 to 15 has consensual intercourse with a person less than five years older than them. The statute of limitations for prosecution of non-consensual intercourse will be extended from 10 to 15 years.