South Korea Changes System For Counting Ages Making Citizens A Year Or Two Younger Instantly

In a change, South Korea has adopted the international system of counting age making its citizens a year or two younger instantly.

South Korea adopts new age counting system making citizens a year or two younger.

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Everyone wishes to be young for as long as possible. Well, while this is something impossible, South Koreans have got a reason to celebrate as now they instantly become a year or two younger with the country’s new age counting system, reported The Guardian. The country has ditched its traditional – and increasingly unpopular – system for counting someone’s age and replaced it with the internationally accepted method. 

As per the report, under the previous system, South Koreans are deemed to be a year old when they are born, and a year is added every 1st January. This meant that a baby born on New Year’s Eve would become two years old as soon as the clock strikes midnight. 

But under the revisions introduced on Wednesday, citizens’ age will be calculated in the same way as the rest of the world in most administrative and civil matters. This includes contracts and other official documents, the Korea Times said, as quoted by The Guardian. 

The South Korean national assembly, which approved the change in December, said it would “resolve the social confusion caused by the mixed use of age calculations and the resulting side effects”. 

As per the report, while the global standard has been applied to medical and legal documents since the 1960s, other official forms have continued to use the traditional method.  

The system drew criticism in recent years from politicians who argued that it causes confusion and makes South Korea, a global technological and cultural power, appear odd out from the rest of the world. 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the existing arrangements were a drain on the country’s resources. In a poll last year, more than 70 per cent of respondents said they agreed with the change, the report stated. 

“We expect legal disputes, complaints and social confusion that have been caused over how to calculate ages will be greatly reduced,” Lee Wan-kyu, the minister of government legislation, told reporters, as quoted by The Guardian. 

“It feels good,” Lee in Seoul told the AFP news agency. “For people like me, who were supposed to turn 60 next year, it makes you feel like you’re still young.”  

“It’s confusing when a foreigner asks me how old I am as I know they mean international age, so I have to do some calculations,” office worker Hong Suk-min told AFP, the report further added. 

With the change in place, some people are expected to continue using the traditional method in informal settings. The Guardian mentioned that 86 per cent of South Koreans said they would adopt the international system in their everyday lives when the new law takes effect, according to a government survey conducted in September 2022. 

However, the change will not suddenly deprive people of the right to legally buy cigarettes or alcohol, or change the year in which they enter compulsory education or become eligible for up to 21 months of national service – a legal requirement for all able-bodied men. 

According to officials, The Guardian mentioned, a third system that governs those areas of life – in which a person’s age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on New Year’s Day – will remain in place for the time being.