Japan raises age of sexual consent from 13 to 16

Japanese lawmakers on Friday adopted legislation to raise the country’s age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, an age limit that had remained unchanged since 1907 and was so low that it made Japan an outlier in the developed world.

The change came as a part of an overhaul of Japan’s laws on sex crimes. The new laws were prompted by growing public outcry over repeated acquittals of sexual abusers and increasing instances of people taking sexually exploitative photos and videos without consent — including footage of girls.

Advocates of stricter sex-crimes laws welcomed the changes, but said more needed to be done to ensure greater protection of women and girls in Japan.

“It is still far from the reality of s3x crimes and only really scratches the surface. I really hope that the laws will catch up to the reality imminently,” said Ikuko Ishida, founder of sexual violence survivors group Be Brave Japan.