The Wakayama Prefectural Police revealed on May 8, 2024 that Your Name. movie producer Koichiro Itou has been referred to prosecutors for additional violation of Child Prostitution & Pornography law in Japan, after it came to light that he had paid an underage girl for sexual intercourse.
The latest case involved a 17-year-old high school girl from Yokohama. Investigators believe Itou knew the girl was a minor when he paid her 30,000 yen for having sexual intercourse at his residence in December 2023.
He is also suspected of taking and saving photographs of the act.
Current conversion puts it at $192. But yeesh…
Here’s the kicker though… Japan JUST raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 LAST YEAR(!)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/japan-raises-the-age-of-sexual-consent-to-16-from-13-which-was-among-the-worlds-lowest
Yes, but none of the local governments had it at 13, so this is purely symbolic
If you compare that to the average cost of living in Japan it’s a bit closer to $300 in terms of spending power.
Either way it’s a lot cheaper than I’d expect to have to pay anyone for sex work, much less something that blatantly illegal.
Oh, as for the age of consent thing that change just made it a national crime. Every prefecture in Japan had already raised the age of consent to 16 (or higher) well before last year. The only places it didn’t apply were some remote military bases and IIRC the portion of Antarctica that Japan claims. Still a good move but it’s not like Japanese pedos were just having sex with 13-year-olds without consequence before then.
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You know 16 is the age of consent for well over half the US states as well right? Not defending people that abuse that fact, but that is a very common age to use as the cutoff point.
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For what age? Other 16 year olds is fine, no?
There are Romeo and Juliette laws for things like that, essentially a reasonable age gap.
Yes. However, for everyone that doesn’t understand why the word “reasonable” is important here: When it comes to age differences and sexual relationships, what a “reasonable person thinks” isn’t nearly as important as how a reasonable person might react when laying down a sentence. Sexual misconduct involving the word “Minor”, which immediately brings with it terms like “Coercion”, “Authority”, and the “inability to give consent” tend to receive strong reactions, and strong responses.
Basically, if you’re 18 and your partner is 17, be extremely cautious to the point of not becoming sexually active together. This includes videos and photos. People’s lives have been ruined for less. I am not in any way advocating for and validating (or dismissing) large age gaps, only providing information for our younger users who may not realize this.
Thank you for the additional details. I figured a 17 and 18 year old would be fine but beyond that it gets questionable IMO.
As I understand it this is in place to prevent having to prosecute teenagers for having consensual sex. Which they’re going to do, illegal or not. But if they were one or both below the age of consent they would legally not be able to consent and this would be considered a rape, easily prosecutable by angry parents.
It is genuinely good that it is this way.
Makes sense, but does it also make it that, say, 30 year olds can marry a 16 year old? When I hear age of consent, that’s what I hear.
that was the national age, just about everywhere had local laws with a higher age already on the books, I think tokyo was 17 or something like that
But that makes it…legal, though, if the girl consented to the sex, right? Or is the prostitution part what makes it illegal?
Prostitution is illegal in japan but individual provinces have a higher age of consent than the country so it’s a mute point anyways. He was being illegal.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moot_point
Oh shit thanks. Never knew I was using it wrong.
Ahh, I see. Not defending the guy, obviously, just wondering about the technicalities.