Age of Consent in Japan

What is the Japan Age of Consent?

The Age of Consent in Japan is 13 years old. The age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Individuals aged 12 or younger in Japan are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape or the equivalent local law.

Japan statutory rape law is violated when an individual has consensual sexual contact with a person under age 13. At 13, Japan's base age of consent is the lowest of any developed country. However, many prefectures also have local "corruption of minors" or "obscenity statutes" (淫行条例) which raise the de-facto age of consent to 16-18, unless they are in a "sincere romantic relationship", usually determined by parental consent. For example, the effective age of consent in Tokyo by local statute is 18. The age of marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys with parental permission, and 20 otherwise (as stated in " ﾅｽ邃｢窶慊ｶ窶｢ﾅｸﾅｽﾆ停?邸", the Child Welfare Act of Japan.

Japan has two territories that have their own local age of consent laws. These territories are listed in the following table:

Territory of Japan	Region	Age Of Consent
Marcus Islands	Oceania	13
Okinotori Islands	Oceania	13

Japan does not have a close-in-age exemption. Close in age exemptions, commonly known as "Romeo and Juliet laws" in the United States, are put in place to prevent the prosecution of individuals who engage in consensual sexual activity when both participants are significantly close in age to each other, and one or both partners are below the age of consent.

Because there is no close-in-age exemption in Japan, it is possible for two individuals both under the age of 13 who willingly engage in intercourse to both be prosecuted for statutory rape, although this is rare. Similarly, no protections are reserved for sexual relations in which one participant is a 12 year old and the second is a 13 or 14 year old.

Age of Consent across the world

The Age of Consent ranges from as low as 11 to as high as 20 years old across the world. Click any country for details, or view countries with the highest & lowest ages of consent.

Age of Consent Map:

Must be married

< 13 years old

14 years old

15 years old

16 years old

17 years old

18 years old

> 19 years old

Back to list of international ages of consent View state ages of consent in the USA