Japan govt adopts bills to lower adult age to 18
Jiji -- Mar 14
The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted on Tuesday bills to amend the Civil Code and other laws to lower Japan's adult age from 20 to 18.

The Abe government plans to introduce the bills, including ones to maintain the ban on drinking, smoking and gambling by people under 20, to the ongoing ordinary session of the Diet for enactment.
If the bills are passed into law, the new adult age will be implemented on April 1, 2022, to mark the first change in the definition of adult in the country's modern period.
If the adult age is lowered, financially independent 18- and 19-year-olds will be able to take out loans and have credit cards without consent from their parents or proxies.
In a bid to prevent those new adults from getting into financial difficulties through problematic transactions, the government has already introduced an amendment bill to the consumer contract law with a new clause enabling adults to cancel deals they felt pressured into signing.

News source: Jiji