2023-06-28 15:23:39
South Korean citizens have become a year or two younger following the government implemented a new system of calculating age, instead of the old traditional system in force in the country.
The old system considered a child to be one year old when he was born, and a new year was added to his age on the first of January every year, which means that a child born on New Year’s Eve will be two years old with the passage of midnight.
The country began implementing the new system starting today, Wednesday, and it will be applied in all official documents and administrative, civil and judicial matters.
According to the official Yonhap Agency, it is expected that it will take time for the new age calculation system to become familiar in Korean society, due to the confusion in many areas of social life and age-sensitive personal relationships.
The agency also noted that many travel agencies and dating companies, which charge according to age groups, will not adopt the new system at this time to “reduce confusion”.
According to KCNA, the system will not be used to determine the age for starting compulsory military service or the legal age for consuming alcoholic beverages or entering schools.
Last December, the National Assembly (Korean parliament) approved a bill to abolish the Korean age system and implement the system used around the world.
The country witnessed great concerns due to the different methods of calculating age, which results in confusion in the provision of social, health and administrative care services, and the authorities bear unnecessary costs, which made Korean President Yoon Seok-yol pledge during his election campaign to work to unify the age system.
“We expect legal disputes, complaints and social unrest caused by how ages are calculated to be significantly reduced,” Lee Wan-kyu, the government’s Minister for Legislation, told a news briefing Monday, according to Archyde.com.
A government survey, conducted in September 2022, found that 86% of South Koreans said they would use the international calculation of their ages when the new laws went into effect.
Since the early 1960s, the country has used the international standard for counting zero at birth and adding a year on each birthday for medical and legal documents, but many South Koreans have continued to use the traditional method for everything else.
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