Fingerprinting of foreign “children” in Japan: an observation
So as many know, Japan started fingerprinting all foreigners who have entered Japan since November 20th (with certain exceptions, such as US military personnel who are stationed here). Fingerprinting of foreigners who enter the country starts at age 17; if they are 16 or younger then they are seen as children and are therefore exempt from this process. Some may say that 18 is the generally internationally recognized age for adulthood and so that should be the minimum age. But this issue becomes even more interesting as another story broke last week.
The government in Japan declared that it was going to start debate on whether to reduce the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 years old. This will most likely result in a lot of debate, as it means the drinking age, smoking and and voting age would also come down. The age of consent would probably not, because that seems to be set at a prefectural level in Japan. So currently, if you are under 20 years old then you are seen as a child within Japan. But according to the Foreign Office’s fingerprinting procedures, if you are 17 years of age or older then you are an adult. So basically, they are saying that foreigners between 17 and 20 will be held to an adult level of responsibility, whereas Japanese would still be classed as children at this age. I have no idea what the legal implications of this are, but would be intrigued to find out if anyone else knows.
I’m not sure how well I’ve explained that, so I apologise if it’s as clear as mud. I hope you can see the point I’m making here though, and the double-standards which seem to be occuring.
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