Former building of the Ministry of Justice, in Tokyo, on February 15, 2023. Philip FONG / AFP
Japan took a step on Friday February 17 towards raising the age of sexual majority in the country, which is currently particularly low (13 years), as part of a vast reform of its legislation against assault. sexual. Experts commissioned by the Ministry of Justice have proposed raising the minimum age of consent for sexual activity to 16, as well as reforms to facilitate the prosecution of rape and criminalize voyeurism.
The recommendations come after a series of acquittals in Japan in rape cases in 2019, rulings that outraged plaintiffs and led to protests by women across the country in solidarity with victims.
1907 Act
Legislative amendments based on these proposals could be adopted by Parliament later this year. The age of sexual majority in Japan is the lowest among the G7 member countries, and it is also lower than in China and South Korea, neighboring countries of the archipelago.
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According to Japanese law on the matter, which has not been amended so far since its introduction in 1907, minors aged 13 and over are considered capable of voluntarily consenting to sexual activities. This makes it difficult for victims who are so young at the time of the crime to bring their attackers to justice, whereas such an act would be directly liable to criminal sanctions in many other countries.
Light penalties
In practice, however, departmental ordinances prohibiting acts “obscenewith minors are sometimes considered to raise the de facto age of consent to 18 in many parts of Japan. But these orders come with much lighter penalties than if the defendants were prosecuted for rape, as they merely treat such sexual relations as mere behavior”unethical“, denounces Kazuna Kanajiri, director of PAPS, a Japanese association for the defense of victims of pornography and sexual exploitation.
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This gives abusers full leeway to “blaming their victims, claiming that they themselves initiated or enjoyed sex“Adds Kazuna Kanajiri, interviewed by AFP. Between two adolescents over the age of 13, sexual relations would remain legal if there is less than five years of difference between the two partners.
Critics
Japan already amended its laws against sexual violence in 2017, the first in more than a century, but for many these reforms did not go far enough. One of the most criticized points in Japan’s current rape law is that prosecutors must prove that the defendants used “violence and intimidation“. Critics of these narrow conditions argue that victims often find themselves blamed for not resisting enough, and point out that those assaulted may freeze or submit during a rape for fear of further injury.
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The Justice Department’s panel of experts is not proposing to delete the text, but to include other characteristics to define rape, such as drugging the victims, taking them by surprise or psychologically manipulating them. This clarificationis not intended to facilitate or complicate“the convictions for rape, but to render the verdicts of the courts”more consistentsaid Yusuke Asanuma, an official with the Ministry of Justice.
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This development is progress, butstill does not meet international standards for rape laws“Reacted the advocacy group Human Rights Now in a statement. The ministry’s expert panel also proposes introducing a new offense covering the act of secretly filming someone for sexual purposes, as well as extending the statute of limitations for sexual violence against minors, to give them more time to complain.
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