Japan
Japan’s parliament passed a bill to lower the voting age from 20 to 18. The decision will result in adding 2.4 million new voters to the nation’s current voting population of 104 million. The legislation will come into effect in time for next year’s upper house election. The last time Japan’s voting age was revised was in 1945, when the voting age was lowered from 25 to 20, and women were given the right to vote. The new law puts Japan in line with nearly 90% of the world’s countries in setting the minimum voting age at 18.