South Koreans Become Younger Under New Age-Counting Law

Facts

• South Koreans have become a year or two younger as new laws that require using only the international method of calculating age took effect on Wednesday, replacing the country's traditional age-counting method.¹
• Under the traditional age counting system, children are considered to be a year old at birth, with an additional year added to their age every Jan. 1.²
• Since the early 1960s, the country has used the international norm of calculating the age at birth as zero and adding a year on every birthday for medical and legal documents, but the traditional system was still used on everything else and was the age system most commonly used in South Korean's lives.²
• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made scrapping the traditional age-counting system a campaign pledge last year, calling it confusing and a drain on the economy, citing previous legal disputes over insurance claims and eligibility for government social welfare programs.³
• The change will not disallow those who were previously of age to legally buy cigarettes or alcohol, change the year in which they start school, or become eligible for up to 21 months of national service — a legal requirement for all able-bodied men. Instead, a third system that governs those areas of life on a yearly basis will remain in place.⁴
• The traditional age-counting methods were also previously used by other East Asian countries, but most have now dropped them. Japan approved the international system for age counting in 1950, while North Korea adopted the international system in the 1980s.⁵

Sources: ¹CBC, ²Reuters, ³USA Today, ⁴Guardian, and ⁵BBC News.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by BBC News. As a modern, technologically advanced nation, it's about time South Korea got rid of this relic of the past. Under the old system, a baby born on Dec. 31 would be two days old in an international system and two years old in South Korea the following day. It's about time that Seoul caught up, even if that means counting backward.
• Narrative B, as provided by Al Jazeera. While the headlines may say that South Korea is adopting the international age-counting system, that's not entirely true. A third system called "year age" will still exist for eligibility for military service, school year, and drinking age. While South Korea may be abandoning one age-counting system, it has still not entirely adopted the international norm yet.