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Japan's Diet OKs law lowering age of adulthood to 18
The Diet passes a package of amendments that — for the first time in 140 years — includes a measure lowering adulthood to 18 years old from the current 20.
The government has decided to introduce legislation toward lowering the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 when the Diet opens in January. It is also slated to remove a clause in the Imperial House Law that sets the emperor's age of majority ...
Without an official father, kids can be stateless
On Nov. 29, the Kobe District Court dismissed a suit against the state filed by a woman in her 60s who claimed that the law that allows only men to deny paternity of a child is unconstitutional, since it discriminates against women. She said ...
A court on Wednesday found constitutional a legal provision that allows only men and not women to file a lawsuit denying the legal fatherhood of a child, dismissing a claim filed against the state by a family for damages related to the accuracy of ...
Diet to take up lowering age of legal adulthood in January session
The government will seek to lower the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 during the ordinary Diet session to be convened in January. If approved, the planned change is expected to take effect in 2022 at the earliest after a transition period. In 2009, the ...
How Japan got new contract law it neither wants nor needs
One possible explanation for the inexplicable change in contract law: It is a giant experiment driven by academic hubris and bureaucratic ambition.
Smoking and drinking ban to remain despite lowering of age of adulthood
Adults under age 20 still won't be able to buy cigarettes or alcohol despite proposed legal changes to lower the age of adulthood to 18, National Police Agency officials said Wednesday. Even with an amended Civil Code, the agency is considering retaining the drinking and ...
Bill to lower age of adulthood set for submission to Diet in fall
New Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa says her ministry might submit a bill to lower the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 this fall.
Civil Code revised to clarify contract terms for consumers and businesses
The Diet on Friday revised the Civil Code to clarify the terms of contracts between businesses and consumers for online shopping, life insurance and other transactions. The revision sets forth criteria for when the terms of contract can be nullified. For example, terms deemed one-sidedly disadvantageous ...
Lack of parental consent preventing hundreds of orphans from being adopted, survey finds
Nearly 300 orphans in Japan could not be put up for adoption over the past two years because their parents’ consent could not be obtained, the welfare ministry says.
Japan looks to unify minimum marriage age at 18 for both sexes
The government is considering setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 nationwide, scrapping a provision introduced shortly after World War II that allows 16-year-old girls to wed, an official source said. The provision for a unified minimum marriage age would be presented in a ...
Legal protections for young people will need to be very robust if the age of adulthood is lowered to 18.
