In practice, across many parts of the country, regional ordinances banning “lewd” acts with minors are sometimes seen as in effect raising the age of consent to 18.
This gets repeated every single time the topic of age of consent in Japan comes up (when I lived in Okinawa it was made clear that the effective age of consent between non citizens and citizens was twenty), it's basically a reddit cliche that migrated with us here. The much more important part of this law is that they're finally updating their definition of sexual assault.
Under the previous law, prosecutors had to prove victims were incapacitated due to violence and intimidation. Critics argued that requirement in effect blamed victims for not resisting enough.
The bill that passed on Friday contains a list of examples under which rape prosecutions can be made. These include victims being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, being frightened, and perpetrators taking advantage of social status.
Of course passing the law is just step one, and steps two through twelve are convincing judges and cops to actually go by it.
I was actually a fourteen-year-old dependent, but they still made me sit through a class and told me the same spiel they tell to boots who just got out of infantry school. The prefectural government sees basically all Americans as intruders (as well they should) and there are a handful of things like that that they'll get you on if you step outside the line.
This gets repeated every single time the topic of age of consent in Japan comes up (when I lived in Okinawa it was made clear that the effective age of consent between non citizens and citizens was twenty), it's basically a reddit cliche that migrated with us here. The much more important part of this law is that they're finally updating their definition of sexual assault.
Of course passing the law is just step one, and steps two through twelve are convincing judges and cops to actually go by it.
Wait, why did they feel the need to remind you that the age of consent was twenty....? Were you US military?
I was actually a fourteen-year-old dependent, but they still made me sit through a class and told me the same spiel they tell to boots who just got out of infantry school. The prefectural government sees basically all Americans as intruders (as well they should) and there are a handful of things like that that they'll get you on if you step outside the line.