but illegal around the world

[ Intro Music]

So I've made videos before on things

that you can't do in Japan because of Japanese law

or unknown laws here in

Japan that could get you arrested

But this time I wanted to switch things up

and show you guys some laws here in

Japan that are actually legal but are

illegal in the rest of the world

Many think that Japan is a very strict

country and rightfully so but when you

hear some of these Japanese laws you may

be scratching your head and to be clear

from the start I don't recommend doing any of these things

I'm not providing

legal advice and this is for

entertainment only but like always

before I start if you want to see what

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Oh and let me know in the comments

How these laws compare to your country

and if you agree or disagree with any of them

alright let's do this

This one is a much debated topic in Japan today

But the legal age of consent is 13 years old in Japan

and one of the lowest in the world

age of consent referring to the minimum

age at which a person is considered to

be capable of giving consent to sexual acts

In fact this has been part of the

Japan penal code since 1907

more than a hundred years without change

While at the same time

leaving some gray area for specific cases

At the end of the day though the

national age of consent in Japan is 13 years old

On somewhat of a lighter note

it's legal in Japan to marry your first cousin

Like many of these laws in the video

it may be legal in some countries or if you're

from the U.S. in your state but the truth is

in other parts of the world marrying

your first cousin is still against the law

So I thought this one was worth mentioning

This law dates all the way

back to Japan's Meiji period

when it was passed in 1898.

It's common enough in Japan that there's a word for it

Itokokon

In fact, there have been many famous

and well-known people in Japan

who have married their first cousin

For example Japan's 56th Prime Minister

who's the grandfather of Japan's more recent Prime Minister

Abe was married to his first cousin

There were even two Prime Minister's

after him who were also

married to their first cousin

One of the reasons for this law was to allow

families to keep their wealth within their family

Unfortunately for those living in Japan today

who also want to legally spend the rest of their life

with their first cousin

Japan is all for it

So this is an interesting one

In Japan, you can sue someone for defamation

if they damage your honor a.k.a public image

Even if the statements are true

This one kind of blew my mind since I'm from the U.S

and we understand defamation to be

But in japan

hurting someone's honor or even hurting

a company's honor is protected by law

Despite the statements being true

I should note though that many laws in Japan

leave a lot of gray area

But the main three criteria for defamation in Japan is

So for example telling your

co-workers or the public that your

married boss is having an affair with

someone even though it's completely true

is considered defamation in Japan

Even online statements if the three

previously mentioned criteria are met

can be considered defamation there are

exceptions though such that you're

stating facts about public interest or

you're a whistleblower to expose company fraud

But at the end of the day the

Japanese law is to protect individuals

and companies from malicious actors that

intend to do their honor or image

harm

Here were two examples that actually happened in Japan

Case 1 - In 2018

a person was having an affair and it was

posted on social media by a third party

although the affair was happening

the person sued the third party for defamation

The Tokyo district court

judged for the plaintiff and was awarded

a 100,000 yen about $820 today

Case 2 - A Quasi-Rape incident occurred in an event circle

A magazine published an anonymous report

about the incident without giving the

subject's real name

In this case

although the incident happened and the

subject was anonymous in the report

The court still awarded for the subject as

it was judged that the subject could be

identified by judging the totality of

the circumstances and received a total

of 4.4 million yen for defamation damages

about $36,000

May be not necessarily illegal around the world

but I thought this one was worth mentioning

So yeah if you're in Japan

and someone's talking that you don't like

You may be able to do something about it

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Now this one is quite a sensitive topic for many people

So I'm gonna try to tread lightly

In Japan hunting whale and dolphins as well as

eating seal and sea lion is completely legal

although it's part of the diet for

some Japanese it's probably safe to say

that most don't eat it regularly

Yet it's still easily found in shops and some restaurants

Even a quick search on Amazon

will yield results for some of these animals

On the other hand shark been also legal to eat in Japan

Probably more commonly eaten and I think it's

fair to say that many Japanese consider

it a delicious food as it's easily found on menus

Probably most commonly found in

Chinese restaurants throughout Japan

But since it's such an expensive delicacy here

Japanese probably won't be eating it regularly

In regards to whaling specifically

Joji Morishita who negotiated

Japan's withdrawal from the

International whaling commission said

Whether you agree with any of this or not

The simple fact is at this time it's legal to eat

these foods here in Japan

So these days

we all pretty much know that cigarettes

are not that good for you

Many places around the

world have laws protecting citizens

including children from cigarettes and

second-hand smoke

But Japan although not there yet is slowly catching up

There are still things that you can do legally

here in Japan when it comes to

cigarettes that aren't necessarily legal

in other parts of the world

In Japan you can still buy cigarettes

from vending machines and granted you have a Taspo photo ID card

and you are of age

Also, although most indoor smoking as of 2020

has been prohibited you can still smoke

in hotel rooms, cigar bars and even some

small size restaurants and bars

that were open before April 2020

I don't know though I feel like there's still a

lot of restaurants and bars

all throughout Japan that were open before 2020

Either way Japan has come a long

way from where it was just a few years ago

when wherever you went indoors

you can pretty much smoke inside

Anyways, those are things that you can legally do in Japan

that may be illegal in other parts of the world

If you guys like this video like always help me out and hit

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Hit that subscribe button and the bell button

and I'll catch you guys in the next one