The age of consent in Japan is extremely low, the lowest of all G7 countries: 13 years. An agreement that has remained unchanged since 1907 and which, in recent years, has led to several clearly unjust acquittals for rape, and which have aroused protests from the population. The age of consent is 16 in Britain and South Korea, 15 in France, and 14 in Germany and China.
Japanese criminal law requires that two conditions be met to establish that sexual assault has occurred: there must be no consent, and there must be evidence that the victim was unable to physically resist the attacker. Among the most controversial provisions of the law is the requirement for prosecutors to prove that perpetrators of rape used “violence and intimidation” to subdue their victims.
The most sensational case was that of the Nagoya District Court, which has aacquitted a father who had repeatedly raped his daughter. According to the judges, there was not enough evidence to affirm that the girl – who had clearly not given her consent – could not have resisted the parent (only later, in the next level of judgement, was the man sentenced to 10 years).
However, the situation is about to change. A justice ministry panel has proposed raising the age of consent, as part of a series of reforms to the penal code that will also make voyeurism a criminal offense and better clarify the requirements for rape proceedings. The obligation will remain for prosecutors to prove that the attackers used “violence and intimidation”, but this definition will also include drugs, the subjection of victims “off guard” and the use of psychological control.
The working group also proposed a new offence, which occurs when someone is secretly filmed for sexual purposes, and theextension of the statute of limitations for rape from 10 to 15 yearsto give victims more time to report.
The amendments are not intended to make it “easier or harder” to get rape convictions, a ministry official said, but “hopefully they will make court verdicts more consistent.” Second Human Rights Noweven if these changes represent a step forward, “still fail to meet the standards of international law on rape”, while also Japan should “redefine the crime of rape as any non-consensual relationship.”
– But is it possible to have a “consensual” relationship with an 11-year-old girl?
– France, the government decides the age of consent: under 15 is violence
Source: Vanity Fair
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