Japan Youth Ordinance Bill

[_leareth]

So, the Youth Ordinance Bill that just passed in Japan - what do you think?

Me, I want to read the text of the bill as passed first before I draw any conclusions, so if anyone out there has a link to it please send over. Preferably properly translated English version, but I'll take the original Japanese (and badger tammaiya with her l337 Japanese plus

Comments

[subaudition]

My understanding is that this is a Tokyo city/prefecture ordinance, and not Japanese national law. I wonder if it will be subject to judicial scrutiny.

I generally don't mind age-restrictions here in the US, so long as there are exceptions for arts/science/education/social commentary/etc. But then it's a different country and culture -- what people there accept as reasonable or unreasonable may be completely different to what we do in the US.

However I don't buy into the argument that a thing should only be age-restricted if there is scientific consensus that it directly causes social harm. The research methods available to social scientists just don't allow them to nail the question, and their results tend to be all over the place. Case studies, survey research, records research, and longitudinal studies include almost unlimited confounds, rely largely on self- or institutional reporting rather than direct measurement, and in the end they show correlation, not causation. Then you have the issue of indirect and/or multi-factored causation. I think the research is informative but limited, so we shouldn't pin everything on its conclusions (or lack thereof).