South Korean lawmakers approved a measure that would revise the way the country tallies a person’s age, ending a system that counted newborns as a year old and meaning that most of its citizens are about to get younger.
The bill passed by the National Assembly on Thursday would scrap the country’s widely used "Korean age” counting standard, which typically added a year or even two to a person’s age compared to the counting system used in most of the world, that starts the clock at zero and begins counting years on the next birthday.
President Yoon Suk-yeol sought the change when he ran for office this year and the move is set to take effect in June. His government has said removing the Korean age system would prevent confusion in processing administrative and medical services.