First Person Perspective of Age of Consent [Child & Foreigner's]
◆First Person Perspective of Age of Consent [ Part C + D ]
In this blog I will be representing the point of view of the child who was victimized and those who are outside of Japan.
C: The Child
I am a 13 year old girl who was forced to have an sexual act with a 35 year old man that I met at an online dating app. I told my parents about it and he got arrested. He admitted to committing the act but he tried to defend himself by saying that he thought I’m not a minor. And since I have to talk to the police about the details, I have to talk about every detail about the incident. This is all because of the Japanese Government because if they haven’t set the age of consent to this low, I wouldn’t need to talk about the details about this and he would’ve gotten arrested without any reason to be proven innocent. After this, I discovered “Your Voice Matters” made by a group of university students who wanted to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16. I was so happy that the signatures were able to get 40,000 signatures, because it shows that people do agree on age of consent in Japan being too low. And I do agree using “13 year old kid” as an example because if the used example was “a little kid” it wouldn’t be specific enough to show how low the age is. I hope that the Japanese Government raise the age of consent soon so that there’ll be less people like us who will be sexually assaulted.
C Sources:
Students submit petition to raise age of consent from 13 to 16: The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan news and analysis. The Asahi Shimbun. (2020, November 21). Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13951064
''. (2020, November 22). Japanese students beg for age of consent to be raised from thirteen to 16. The Irish Sun. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.thesun.ie/news/6183191/japan-students-age-of-consent-sex-thirteen/
Varghese, N. (2022, June 22). 35-year-old doctor arrested after having sex with 13-year-old minor in Hotel. Latin Times. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.latintimes.com/35-year-old-doctor-arrested-after-having-sex-13-year-old-minor-hotel-518523
D: The Foreigner
D Sources:
Japan Age of Consent & Statutory Rape Laws. (2022). AgeOfConsent. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.ageofconsent.net/world/japan#:%7E:text=At%2013%2C%20Japan%27s%20base%20age,usually%20determined%20by%20parental%20consent.
Noto, M. (2021, August 3). Lawmaker’s gaffe prompts rethink of Japan’s age of consent. Zenbird. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://zenbird.media/lawmakers-gaffe-prompts-rethink-of-japans-age-of-consent/
I did not know that there was a petition called “Your Voice Matters”. I found it interesting that it was made by a group of university students and not adults. I feel like this indicates that adults care less about the age of consent more than teenagers. It is sometimes assumed that teenagers or young adults are the ones that cannot think the right choices, but in this case, I feel like these university students are smarter and more caring than adults (the government). Will Japan really raise their age of consent...? Discussing rape itself in Japan is sometimes perceived as “embarrassing” and this kind of culture that is embedded in Japanese society is really upsetting.
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