The national age of consent is lower than that, yes, but that’s only because they don’t need to raise it because every individual part of the country has a perfectly normal age of consent.
CW: Discussion of SA
Like you said. The national age of consent is low. It's 13. What this reveals to me is, there's no federal protections in place, and if one random province decided to institute the national age of consent, nothing would be there to stop them. Just like there's nothing stopping any individual American state from banning abortion. It's worth asking why the national age of consent is so low in the first place, and why the people of Japan have to rely on local government to prevent adults from legally having sex with 13 year olds. I mean come on. Also prefectures don't have their own local ages of consent from what I was able to look up just now. Instead, many prefectures have local "corruption of minors" or "obscenity statutes" (淫行条例) which raise the de-facto age of consent to 16-18, unless they are in a "sincere romantic relationship", usually determined by parental consent.
However, Japan has two territories that have their own local age of consent laws. These territories are the Marcus Islands and the Okinotori Islands, where the local age of consent is the same as the national age of consent... 13... so... exactly what I was suggesting is the problem with Japan is still the problem with Japan. Also they have no "Romeo and Juliet" laws I.e. close in age exemptions. Which means if two minors engage in sexual activity they are both charged with statutory rape, regardless of the presence or absence of coercion or the direction of the coercion. Seems potentially problematic to me. A 13 year old boy sexually assaults a 13 year old girl and they both get charged with statutory rape? What?
CW: Discussion of SA
Like you said. The national age of consent is low. It's 13. What this reveals to me is, there's no federal protections in place, and if one random province decided to institute the national age of consent, nothing would be there to stop them. Just like there's nothing stopping any individual American state from banning abortion. It's worth asking why the national age of consent is so low in the first place, and why the people of Japan have to rely on local government to prevent adults from legally having sex with 13 year olds. I mean come on. Also prefectures don't have their own local ages of consent from what I was able to look up just now. Instead, many prefectures have local "corruption of minors" or "obscenity statutes" (淫行条例) which raise the de-facto age of consent to 16-18, unless they are in a "sincere romantic relationship", usually determined by parental consent.
However, Japan has two territories that have their own local age of consent laws. These territories are the Marcus Islands and the Okinotori Islands, where the local age of consent is the same as the national age of consent... 13... so... exactly what I was suggesting is the problem with Japan is still the problem with Japan. Also they have no "Romeo and Juliet" laws I.e. close in age exemptions. Which means if two minors engage in sexual activity they are both charged with statutory rape, regardless of the presence or absence of coercion or the direction of the coercion. Seems potentially problematic to me. A 13 year old boy sexually assaults a 13 year old girl and they both get charged with statutory rape? What?
source: https://www.ageofconsent.net/world/japan