South Korea

South Koreans to Become Younger as Traditional Age Calculation System Is Scrapped

Set to go into effect in June, the change will make citizens one or two years younger on official documents

Wang Yiliang/Xinhua via Getty Images

South Korea passed a law on Thursday that scraps its traditional method of counting ages and instead adopts the international age-counting system, where age is based on birth date.

Set to go into effect in June, the change will make citizens one or two years younger on official documents.

The traditional age-counting system declares Koreans a year old at birth and adds a year to their age every Jan. 1.

However, South Korea has various methods for counting age dependent on the situation.

A separate so-called "year age" method is also used for conscription purposes or when calculating the legal age to drink alcohol and smoke in which a person’s age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on Jan. 1.

South Korea has, however, used the international method for medical and legal documents since the early 1960s.

The wide array of methods often left citizens confused about their age, according to The Washington Post.

The country's parliament called the National Assembly, said the change would "resolve the social confusion caused by the mixed use of age calculations and the resulting side effects."

“The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socioeconomic costs because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age,” Yoo Sang-bum of the governing People Power Party told the National Assembly, BBC News reports.

As of June, the systems will disappear on official documents when the new law takes effect.

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