Japanese 18-Year-Olds: Are They Adults?
May 21st, 2007 by James
On Saturday morning, Fuji TV reported on Japan’s voting age, which has recently become a big issue in the Diet. Part of the result included asking a group of foreign students for their opinions on lowering the Japanese age of adulthood to eighteen. Here is what they said:
What do you think of Japanese 18-year-olds?
The Korean student says he thinks their voices and the way they talk is cute.
The Thai student thinks they speak very loud and are not like adults.
The Swedish guy says he thinks they are like children, and that Japanese 18-year-olds are at about the same level as Swedish 13-year-olds.
The general opinion seems to be that Japanese 18-year-olds are not very mature.
Kind of harsh, don’t you think?
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I saw a program the other day where a few Japanese 18 year olds said almost the same thing to what the Swedish guy said. There were also two male high school students who basically said, “There are HS students who are interested in politics and want to vote.”
I’m not sure it’s much different from anywhere else in the OECD. If they want 18 year olds to be adults, make them legal adults. Then they don’t have much of a choice, do they?
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I spent a year in a Japanese high school (as a student) and would have to agree with the Swedish guy. Japanese kids are pretty naive. Of course that isn’t necessarily a bad thing: it probably means they’re insulated from a lot of bad things that American (and Swedish) kids are exposed to. They also tend to be less cynical as a whole.
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I find it hard to believe that Japanese 18-year olds are any more immature than say, American 18-year olds.
Many of us who have been to Japan either as adults or young adults will look at those around us and think they are immature, but that’s because we are comparing them to ourselves. The moment you go to a foreign country, you mature a few years. If you’re doing it alone and away from your own family, you mature even more. (As apposed to coming here with your family and living in a little-America.)
I personally think people my age in Japan are more immature than me, but no more immature than any of my friends from High School in America. The one’s that are immature in America or don’t care about politics don’t vote anyways, so it’s not even an issue. The real issue is does a 18-year old kid that chops his mothers head off and carries it to a police station get tried as a minor because he’s not 20, or does he get the death penalty because the legal age for an adult is now 18.
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I don’t think they are any more immature. Teenagers are idiots everywhere and everywhen. I know because I was one.
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If you give the 18 year olds more responsibility, they will respond to it. If you treat them like kids and don’t let them vote, then what do you expect. Frankly, that Swedish guy looks really immature too. Swedish kids can also be pretty immature!
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Hmm, interesting. I’m 18 years-old and definitely feel ready to vote now that I’ve studied Economics in school and am more aware of the world around me.
I think there’s truth in saying that when one knows one’s going to be able to vote soon, one makes some more of an effort to learn about politics and whatnot.
I think my Japanese 18 year-olds are about as mature as British teenagers. Now Australian teenagers on the other hand, they are immature!! Australian teenagers have little interest in politics and growing up. (Lived in Australia for 4 years.)
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So, i take it that the voting age in Japan is 21? Good! It should be 25! Same thing in the West, imo.
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Having spent a year in a Japanese university and beeing Swedish I must agree with the Swedish guy in the video clip. I felt that the 1st and 2nd year students were very immature, like Swedish high school students.
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Oh I meant:
“…like Swedish junior high school students.”
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Japanese 18 year old, hmmm, I though I’ve seen Japanese kid or teenagers. Japanese ppl need to build their body bit, I think they are bit small.
Eat some more fatty food with alots of protein, I remember, I used to tease Japanese kid at high school.
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