Fifty-six percent of respondents to a Yomiuri Shimbun nationwide survey opposed lowering the age of majority from 20 to 18. Forty-two percent said otherwise.
The survey was conducted ahead of deliberations on a bill to amend the Civil Code and lower the age of majority at a plenary session of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
More than half of all the respondents said they opposed lowering the age of majority. The results show that lowering the age lacks public understanding.
The government and the ruling parties aim to have the bill passed into law during the ordinary Diet session so it can take effect in April 2022.
Should the bill be passed into law, the nation's legal age of majority will be changed for the first time in 140 years.
The nationwide mail-in survey was conducted from March 13 through April 18 on 3,000 eligible voters. Of them, 1,936, or 65 percent, gave valid responses.
When a survey of this kind was conducted in 2016 on people aged 20 and older, 45 percent said they agreed with lowering the age of majority. Fifty-four percent said they opposed it. Thirty-five percent of 18- and 19-year-olds supported it, whereas 64 percent opposed it.
In the latest survey, when asked why they support lowering the age of majority (with multiple answers allowed), 61 percent, the highest proportion, said they think 18-year-olds have the awareness of adults.
Forty-seven percent of the respondents aged 18 to 29 believe many 18-year-olds have appropriate judgment.
Among the people who opposed lowering the age of majority (with multiple answers allowed), 67 percent believe many 18-year-olds are not financially independent.
Seventy-five percent of all respondents said they were interested in the amendment of the law.
Regarding the minimum age for marriage, 81 percent supported raising it for women from 16 to 18. The current minimum age is 18 for men and 16 for women.
Regarding activities currently permitted for people aged 20 and older, 33 percent of respondents said (with multiple answers allowed) that marriage without parental consent should be allowed for people aged 18 and above. That was followed by drinking, at 20 percent; smoking, at 13 percent; and horse, bicycle and other publicly operated gambling activities, at 10 percent.
The government will maintain the ban on drinking, smoking and publicly controlled gambling for people under 20.
Eighty-five percent of respondents supported lowering the age at which people are subject to the Juvenile Law to those aged under 18. Currently, that law is applied to people aged under 20.
Even if that age were lowered, 52 percent said that "18- and 19-year-olds should be given special trials and guidance that are similar to the procedures under the Juvenile Law." Forty-six percent opposed that idea.
If the age of majority is lowered, 18-year-olds will be able to take out loan contracts and obtain credit cards without parental consent. This has led to concern that more young people could fall victim to unscrupulous business practices.
The government has submitted a bill to the current Diet session for amending the Consumer Contract Law so that it contains a provision to cancel illicit contracts. Deliberations on it are expected to start soon.
However, six opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are boycotting Diet deliberations in protest of issues involving school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
At a lower house plenary session on Tuesday, the government explained the bill to amend the Civil Code without the opposition parties present.
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