The Japanese parliament has unanimously approved this Friday a series of legislative reforms on sexual crimes. The new law, which includes amendments to the country’s Penal Code, raises the age of consent from 13 to 16, penalizes any non-consensual sexual relationship (without physical violence or coercion being necessary), clarifies the requirements for a condemns rape and criminalizes voyeurism and taking sexualized images of a person without their consent, according to the Kyodo news agency. In a statement, the Japanese NGO Human Rights Now has described the set of reforms as a “big step forward.”
Japan last revised its penal code on sexual offenses in 2017, after more than a century without changes. Despite the fact that more severe penalties were then included, the reforms left intact some highly controversial requirements when it comes to convicting sexual crimes, such as that prosecutors had to prove that the defendants had resorted to “violence and intimidation”. This requirement was widely criticized for “blaming the victims for not resisting enough”. Critics argued that sexually assaulted people may freeze or submit during a rape for fear of further injury, and that this requirement pushed people who were assaulted not to report or, when they did, reduced their chances of winning the case at any time. the courts.
The changes approved this Friday are precisely intended to clarify the illegality of all non-consensual sexual relations, without exception, and change the current crime from “forced sexual intercourse” to “non-consensual sexual intercourse.” The move comes after victims’ advocates have relentlessly called for legal reform in the wake of several controversial acquittals that took place in 2019 that sparked protests across Japan.
more than a century
In order to protect minors from sexual abuse, the revised laws also criminalize sexual relations with minors under 16 years of age, after raising the age of consent (the age at which a person can legally consent to maintain intercourse), which was previously one of the lowest in the world (13 years) and which had remained unchanged since 1907.
With the change, Japan is located in the line of countries like Spain, the United Kingdom or South Korea (also 16 years), and above others such as France (15 years) or Germany and China (14 years). The law, for the first time, also contemplates as aggression the upskirting, that is, taking photos or videos from under a woman’s skirt without her permission, as well as taking photos of a person’s genitals, buttocks or breasts without their consent. The fine for these violations will amount to three million yen (19,500 euros) and the perpetrators could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
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