A panel of the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council has proposed lowering the legal age under the Civil Code from 20 to 18. The council is expected to hand the proposal to the justice minister in September. A Civil Code revision will entail revision of some 300 laws. The panel's report says that the Diet should judge when the law revisions should be made.
Lowering of the legal age will have a great impact — social, economic and political. Thorough discussions will be necessary so that no ambiguity is left in the details of related laws and regulations and problems that may arise.
The panel's discussion was spurred by a provision in the 2007 law governing the procedure for a national referendum on a constitutional revision, which in principle sets the voting age at 18. The law calls for discussion on whether to lower the legal age by the time it goes into effect in 2010.