A country has made every single person who lives in its borders at least one year younger after a bizarre law was officially overturned this week.
Today (June 28) a new law came into effect in South Korea that officially reduced every person’s age after politicians in the Asian country voted to repeal a “centuries-old” tradition.
For hundreds of years, Korea’s most widely used age calculation method saw a person born in the country turn one at birth and gain another year on January 1. This means a baby born on 31 December will be two years old the very next day.
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This was done because for centuries, the, on average, nine months spent in a womb was considered time lived.
The country’s resident Yoon Suk Yeol said that the mismatched counting methods created “unnecessary social and economic costs,” and pledged to change the law when running for office last year.
And millions across the country appeared to agree with him, with theBBC reportingthat three-quarters of South Korean citizens wanted to join the “international counting method,” which sees age being counted from the date of birth.
Before the change, huge problems arose as a result of the confusion.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, health authorities used both international and traditional counting methods to set age brackets for vaccine eligibility, leading to mass confusion in a country that already suffered in the early 2000s from SARS.
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On top of this, many Koreans feel that they have to explain the age counting system to people whenever they visit other countries.
"Now that Korea is following the global standard, I no longer have to explain my 'Korean age' when I go abroad,” one person told the BBC.
Despite the major move, many existing laws that count a person's age based on the "traditional" calendar year system will remain. For example, South Koreans can buy cigarettes and alcohol from the year, not the day, they turn 19.
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