Panel proposes lowering age of adulthood to 18

Thursday 29th October, 06:37 AM JST

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tkoind2 at 09:50 AM JST - 29th October

And what is their plan about raising the age of maturity? Most of the young people I meet here would not survive in most other countries. They live off their parents, have no clue how to survive day to day, can't really do domestic tasks well and seem rather immature overall.

You can lower the age of majority, but what is the point if masses of this society are psychologically and socially much younger in their capacity to function?
airrunwesker at 09:57 AM JST - 29th October

Ha! It should be raised... not lowered. Historically we always raise the legal age. I am a little confused about why, or whom, in Japan wants it lowered.
n3312 at 10:54 AM JST - 29th October

I think it should be "synchronized" first. Why is the "legal" drinking and smoking age 20, but the age to "legally" buy porn is 2 years before that? It would seem that currently, one can buy/own/see porn at 18 but unable to buy or consume alcohol and tobacco until 2 years later.
SBBarnes at 11:34 AM JST - 29th October

n3312 wrote:I think it should be "synchronized" first. Why is the "legal" drinking and smoking age 20, but the age to "legally" buy porn is 2 years before that?

Is one truly related to the other? Is being able to mentally handle porn the same as being responsible enough to drink?

tkoind2 wrote: And what is their plan about raising the age of maturity?

If you want people to act mature you have give them the chance to gain the experience that becoming mature requires. You cannot keep people in a box all their formative years and expect them to come out mature. And 20 years is too long being preached to about maturity and having no practical experience with it.

I would say the high ages of requirement for so many things is exactly the problem with today's young people being so immature and irresponsible and staying that way into adulthood. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. And Japan is not the only country having the problem. And this idea of lowering the ages will not fix the problem over-night, just like making it too high did not make problems over-night. It will take time.
Kapuna at 02:02 PM JST - 29th October

I know persons in their 40's who are yet to grasp adulthood.
eigonosensei at 06:26 PM JST - 29th October

So, WHY do they want to lower the adult age to 18? The 2nd reason is to lower the voting age, as well, but what is the MAIN reason for lowering to 18? Perhaps useful info for an article about the subject, hmm? Can the article itself be removed for being "off topic"?
pawatan at 07:25 PM JST - 29th October

They live off their parents, have no clue how to survive day to day, can't really do domestic tasks well and seem rather immature overall.

Welcome to Asia. There's a continent-wide longer transition to adulthood than in the west.
dolphingirl at 08:31 PM JST - 29th October

I see what people are saying. The question is, if you lower the age of adulthood to 18 will the youngsters then become more mature to match this? So much of Japanese culture is tightly intertwined with age. Would they then change Coming of Age day, too? Plus, most don't move out on their own til they are into their 20's (or older!) To lower the age of adulthood and have it really mean something, a lot of other things in society would need to change as well.
kirakira25 at 09:43 PM JST - 29th October

I would just like to see a change to reflect that people here as young as 15 or 16 CAN be considered responsible for their actions and tried accordingly if they break the law. As for the age of drinking, smoking, buying porn etc - its kind of arbitrary anyway - they dont magically flick a switch in someone when they turn 20 and suddenly they are capable of behaving responsibly. Some people are more mature at 16 than others at 36.

I don`t honestly think changing the official "adult" age will make any difference to peoples maturity. It seems to have far more to do with the way you are raised than your actual age.
Monoflow at 12:25 AM JST - 30th October

It's okay to lower the age of adulthood to 18. Why? Because it's kind of standard age of adulthood around the world. It doesn't matter if there are 18 years old, who still have the mind of a child or whatever, but it's a positive sign towards youngsters to become more responsible of things after 18...
Good_Jorb at 12:39 AM JST - 30th October

Does that those who are 18 or 19 now, get screwed out of thier coming of age celebrations?
Fadamor at 03:28 AM JST - 30th October

I would imagine anyone whose Coming of Age celebration got skipped because the law changed would get "grandfathered" into the next celebration after the law went into effect.

Whatever age is chosen has a big effect on many things. I'm not sure the concept of "making them match" is a sound idea. The U.S. put it at 18 and back in the 70's they reduced the drinking age to match (they argued that if someone was old enough to die for their country, then they should be old enough to drink alcohol). After quite a few years of excessive teenage deaths due to accidents while drunk, the drinking age was moved back to 21 while the "dying for your country age" was kept at 18.
OldGeezer at 04:32 PM JST - 31st October

More than 1,700 teens die per annum in alcohol-related incidents since 2001. They comprise about 2.27% of the number of total alcohol-related deaths, which has grown from 75,000 in 2001 to 79,000 in 2008. Young men and women joining the military usually know that there is serious risk involved (the military fights in wars - obviously). They rarely have the same appreciation of the risks involved with alcohol (it's just for fun, after all).
inakaRob at 11:24 AM JST - 2nd November

thats great and all. and I really love japan and it people, but do to the way their society works, i feel the dont really turn in to adults until their late 20's. I went through a hell of lot of things before I was even in college, things that forced me hurt, to feel, to grow, to learn. None of these things have i seen happen to any Japanese person in high school, maybe not even college. They dont seem to become adults until they have lived in the REAL world looking for jobs, having babies (too early) etc. Japanese people have their own struggles in high school, but not adult struggles, they are VERY school related struggles. These 'kids' lead an extremely protected life until they are set free to fight for a job or go to college. Its not bad, probably better than having to fight off racist gangs or peer pressure to do drugs like 99% of schools in the USA. AND i think alcohol is the single worst drug i have ever tried.
bushlover at 11:45 AM JST - 4th November

My proposal: Age to buy porn: 13 (can't control hormones) Age to have sex: 16 (same as above) Age to vote: 25 (not much interest before that...even after) Age to get married: 20 (to stop hasty decisions) Age to drink: 22 (to become more responsible?? yeah like that'll happen.) Age to smoke: 16 (let them kill themselves early)