Japan’s parliament on Friday passed new legislation that redefines nonconsensual sex as rape and raises the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 in a major revamp of the country’s century-old sex crime laws.
The new laws outline eight acts that constitute a victim’s lack of sexual consent, including being assaulted while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or being intimidated by the perpetrator, Kyodo News reported.
The amendments will make filming and distributing people’s exploitative images without consent illegal and increase the statute of limitations for reporting rape from 10 to 15 years, according to the report.
Under the new laws, the age of sexual consent will be raised from 13 to 16, but there would be an exception for adolescents to engage in consensual intercourse with people less than five years older than them….