I’m curious. Would it would be illegal for a 16 year old to date someone who's like 21-25 (which is the Matsu brother’s age) even if there’s no sex involved? The age of consent in most states in the U.S. is 16 while in Japan, it’s 13. (13 is shockingly young!) Hopefully this question isn’t too iffy for you to answer!
I don't know why this blog is slowly becoming asking about Japanese Laws/Culture, not that I'm complaining I find Japan nifty so I have no qualms in spending hours on google trying to understand the certain law or stigmas, it's just weird to think about considering both me and Mod Ace are Americans who never left the country.
Now since this does involve the age of consent, which is the epicenter of a lot of debates in the anime community usually for is so-and-so a creep, or are they okay? Is this ship okay despite the age difference? So I will be doing my absolute best on trying to be careful while speaking on the topic, but I will be giving you just the facts of the Age of Consent Laws in Japan.
Btw the age of Consent Law of Japan is complicated and somewhat confusing, so if you know more about this and I say anything wrong please tell me. This is just how I personally understand it after reading different articles from people studying law in Japan. I would love nothing more than for me to understand all of this better.
Okay, now without further ado, let's talk about how the law of consent works in Japan. If this comes off as aggressive in any way I apologize:
The Age of Consent in Japan being 13, is just the Nation's law, the different prefectures are allowed to have their own laws about it as long as it's not below 12.
Tokyo's (which is the prefecture Osomatsu-san/kun takes place in) age of consent is 18 years old. In Japan, you are not considered an adult until you are 20 years old. By Tokyo law, if a 21-25-year-old gets into a sexual relationship with anyone who is below 18 (in Tokyo) it is considered a misdemeanor which to my knowledge if convicted the man can be charged with 5 years of forced labor. If somebody who is 20 and above is found in a sexual relationship with somebody who is under 13 that becomes a felony and the man can be convicted to 20 years of forced labor.
Japan, however, doesn't have a law to protect people who are close in age (like with a year or two age difference) so unfortunately, this law can also affect kids who are just a couple of years older, if somebody decides to prosecute them.
"The Juvenile Obscene Acts, which take precedence over the Penal Code, set out laws relating to the age of consent for specific prefectures. In some, sexual activity with anyone below the age of 15 is illegal, but in others, the age of consent is as high as 18. In these prefectures, engaging in sexual activity with a person under the age of consent can lead to a prison sentence of up to five years, depending on the prefecture. Although rare, in some prefectures, even hugging or holding hands with someone underage can be illegal." (BetterBlokezNZ, Betterblokes.org)
Going back to the fact that you're not an adult until your 20 in Japan, in some prefectures you'd need your parent's written permission and agreement in order to date somebody who is older than 20.
I currently can't find if Tokyo has this law, so let's just assume real quick they do. If this 16-year-old can get consent from their parents that they can date one of the Matsus, then it is legal.
However, applying some parental morals/headcanons- since they are NEETs in a business heavy Japan, I don't know what reasonable parent/guardian would give a written okay for these trashy boys to date their child.
And since you just asked if it would be legal I won't throw in my own personal headcanons about the Matsus’ here. So this is just straight facts with one bit of Baan Morals/Reasoning.
Tl;dr- The age of consent in Tokyo is actually 18, and if the Matsus want to date somebody who is 16 they potentially need that 16-year-old parent’s okay. But since they are the way they are, no parent would reasonably let them date their child.
Once again if I got anything wrong, please chime in and tell me. This is all very confusing and I woke up 3 hours ago and spent roughly 2 hours looking into this.
Tune in probably another 2 hours where Mod Baan talks about tattoo's in Japan cause that's also an interesting cultural thing that I have also received a couple of headcanon requests on.
Btw I will reblog this again, but with my sources
