Do you know if, in Japan, are there some rules that forbid making love between under-eighteen-year-olds?

That is the rule in Tokyo.

Source

“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:”

Yes. There are laws in Japan that forbid sex under 18. Although, as with most things involving the law, it is more complicated than that. The age of consent in Japan is often quoted as 13 although what actually happens is that the age of consent is set by individual prefectures with a lower limit of 13. Most prefectures set it 16–18. In addition to that there is the Japanese child welfare act that makes it a illegal to fornicate with a child (child refers to anyone under the age of 18 fornicate means to have sex outside marriage). So you could have sex with a sixteen year old girl if you were married to her and not living somewhere where the age of consent is 18. Probably.

You’d probably want to get actual legal advice from a Japanese lawyer if this is anything other than hypothetical…

(Edited for clarity)

Um, just out of curiosity…why do you want to know this?

@cookieman: I was a bit flustered that teens who are in love with each other can’t know about sex.

Whatayamean “know” about sex. Do they not think it exists? Or do you mean, participate in?

@cookieman: Even teens are taught about sex at a not-so-early age sometimes. Anyway, I meant participate in.

Got’cha