A special panel of the Liberal Democratic Party has proposed lowering to 17 the maximum age that minors would be subject to the Juvenile Law, down from the current 19. The party plans to submit the proposal to the government and get it discussed by the Legislative Council, an advisory body for the justice minister. Members of the special panel think that since the minimum voting age has been lowered from 20 to 18 through a revision in June to the Public Offices Election Law, people aged 18 to 19 should be treated as adults in taking responsibility for their crimes.

The panel's call may make some sense, because some minors commit crimes with the knowledge that their age will spare them criminal punishment due to provisions under the Juvenile Law. But linking the minimum voting age to the maximum age of minors covered by the Juvenile Law appears to be all too mechanical.

The basic aim of the law is to help minors achieve healthy growth as members of society through education, rectification of personality and adjustment of the environment around them if they have committed a crime or delinquency. One wonders whether the members of the LDP panel sufficiently understand this. It also seems they haven't paid enough attention to real-life situations in which the law is applied.