Japan enacts laws to reform sex offense charges, raise age of consent

Japan's parliament on Friday enacted laws to criminalize nonconsensual sexual acts even in the absence of physical violence or coercion, and to raise the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 to protect children from abuse.The laws, which include amendments to the country's Penal Code, passed the House of Councillors with unanimous consent after being approved by the House of Representatives. "Upskirting" and other forms of capturing sexualized images of people without their consent will also be criminalized.The revisions are partly intended to better clarify the illegality of nonconsensual s…READ FULL ARTICLE