INVC NEWS
Tokyo : A major change has been made in Japan’s sex crime law. A new law has been passed here to change the definition of rape and increase the age of consent. According to the new law, making physical relations without consent will be considered as rape. Till now only forceful relations were kept under the purview of rape. In addition, the age of legal consent has also now been raised from 13 years to 16 years.
The new law was passed on Friday in the Upper House of Japan’s Parliament Diet. In this, 8 such conditions have been included when for some reason the victim is not able to register his disagreement. For example, if the victim is given some intoxicant, is hit or threatened, or is afraid of something if she refuses to have a relationship. At the same time, the age of consent has been changed for the first time in the last 116 years in Japan. When the law was enacted in 1907, the age of consent was kept at 13 years.
Apart from this, the time interval for filing complaints related to rape under this law has also been reduced from 10 to 15 years. That is, even after 15 years of the crime, the victim can register its complaint. Along with this, photo voyeurism has also been banned.
Japan has by far the lowest age of consent for sex among developed countries. However, according to the new law, having sex with a minor who is between 13-15 years of age will be considered an offense only if the accused is at least 5 years older than the victim.
