"Sex With Minors OK in Japan… Even encouraged"

The article linked to says the following:

Sex With Minors OK in Japan… Even encouraged

In over 80 countries in the world the age of consent for sex is 16. For Japan, it is only 13.

13 year old girls can consent to having sex!! Something is wrong with this picture.

Indeed, something IS wrong with this picture. While there is an old federal law that sets the age of consent in Japan at 13, most prefectures have their own consent laws that override the federal law, setting the actual age of consent for Japan around 16 to 17 years old. Some commenters at digg have pointed this out, but the article continues to gain votes. Even recent news articles that demonstrate cases of men being arrested for sex with minors cannot stop the tide of diggs. Come on, folks: mark that link as inaccurate!

Update: LeonJp has also covered this story.

15 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 18, 2007 at 7:52 am

Categories: Anti-Japan, General Japan Tags:

Me3

It’s … just Digg. It doesn’t matter.

Karisu

Matters a whole lot more than you do.

http://surfin-english.blogspot.com Jamie

What exactly does that mean? Are you trying to insult Me3 by saying that Digg is more important than she/he is?

Maybe you should spend more time offline.

the overthinker

Is it actually accurate to refer to a ‘federal’ law for a Japanese national law? I was under the impression that a federal system of states like the US and Australia was a specific form of government. The dictionary defines it as “Of, relating to, or being a form of government in which a union of states recognizes the sovereignty of a central authority while retaining certain residual powers of government.” which implies that a group of independent regions came together and formed a central government while retaining a few powers. In Japan the prefectures are a creation of a strong centralised state, and perhaps are more in common with the county-state relationship in the US rather than the state-centre one. I have very seldom heard of Japan being referred to as a federal system.

Oh, and the article, what little there is of it here, is utter nonsense. These teens may be having sex, but in most cases they ain’t having babies.
http://www.mutantfrog.com Joe

Right, it isn’t a true “federal” law. It’s the Criminal Code, which defines the age of consent as 13. So the child has to be 12 or under for the sex to qualify as “rape.” I have heard (but cannot confirm) that there are some areas out in the boonies which have not banned sex with older minors. However, if you’re in the cities, there will be some sort of law illegalizing sex with 13-16 year olds.
Leanne

So, what? In Canada it’s 14. I always thought it was 18, but my councilor told our CAPP class that it was 14.
http://lacolumna.equinoxio.org/ Julián Ortega Martínez

In Colombia is 14 too. You can check out the Wikipedia entry on the issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent
http://doinkies.livejournal.com doinkies

Oh for the love of spork. -_- This article is obviously doinky sensationalism, and the ‘doctor’ reported in that article is from Roppongi of all places! I wouldn’t take Roppongi as representative of all Japan when it comes to teens having sex.

And has this person ever *seen* “14-sai no Haha”? It doesn’t “glorify” teen pregnancy, rather, it points out that it happens and that there are tons of risks involved.

Not to mention that, as many people have mentioned, there were recent news articles about people arrested for having sex with minors, and that prefectural age of consent laws override the national laws.

It seems that the original “article” which the “article” posted on Digg’s information came from was from that bastion of truth and 100% accuracy….WaiWai. *roll* And the doink that posted the “article” actually believes that WaiWai articles are the 100% truth even though many commenters pointed out that the articles in that section come from sleazy tabloids and are often very sensationalistic.

And this is why WaiWai is doinky!
Guybrush

Is this about teenagers having sex among themselves or with adults (over 18 years old). As far as I know most european countries allow teenagers to have sex with other teenagers at 14.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

The article linked at digg implies that there are older men getting it on with 13-year-olds and it’s 100% OK and encouraged. The wacky WaiWai article that that story steals from content from was actually about a doctor examining sexually active teens who were probably involved with others close to their age.

WujouMao

it maybe ok to have sex with your girlfriend if both are the same age, like 13 or 14. but if the girl is 13 and the man is 19, he is still in the teens, but he shouldnt be doing this. of course, the higher age you reach and still have a lust for 13 year old school kids, thats the problem
LordAhh

LOL in my country (will not be named, but tropical) There is no age of consent does not exist, any type of sex with a person(s) that aren’t officially martially married (Legal Age 17) to you can be considered as “rape”. However, here is the catch, this only applies to men, so if you are a guy caught to have had sex with a women or raped by a women you get charged a lump sum of $100 000 (CDN). Women are also encouraged to speak up and attack men.. so as to prevent the rape of women.

I, personally, however am disappointed by Japanese law… so if I had a 13+ year old daughter who is force ably put into sexual submission, it wouldn’t be considered rape? lol that is quite f***ed up… it is quite disappointing too…
Christian Peper

I find it interesting that sex with minors is such a big deal when the real story is sexual repression!! The average American is sexually repressed. I feel that it is very very important to personal freedom to increase sexual freedom rather than decrease it. Sexuality should be viewed on a continuum with very repressive on one end and freedom on another end. Why should people complain about the youth having great sex at a young age? It is a proven fact that how a young individual views sexual experience(s) after the fact is determined by how the larger society views the sexual experience(s). The large number of youth that have been tricked and forced into giving false testimony about sex they enjoyed at the time has filled our prisons with innocent people.

We need to lighten up about sex, lower the age of consent, and most of all celebrate sex as one of Gods most pleasurable gifts.
Asif

This is a wrong play,if it seems to be right.Sex in such a minor age is a kind of victimization.Think if a boy is 24 and girl is 13,i think so due to the fear and terror she consciously die.Ifsome one is disagree with the remarks they can post the correction or appreciation.Thanks
longus dickus

wait.. are you talking here about “having sex” or are you talking here about “making children” or are you talking about “marriage with teenagers”?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescent_sexuality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Age_of_Consent.png

"Sex With Minors OK in Japan… Even encouraged"

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