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Why will South Koreans turn a year or two younger next summer?

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Dristi Sharma
Dristi SharmaDec 09, 2022 | 14:58

Why will South Koreans turn a year or two younger next summer?

You are not getting any younger... unless you are in a sci-fi movie where you travel to a planet that prevents you from ageing, or you are in South Korea.

What: I know, the first half is quite understandable (though impossible), but South Korea? Yes.


And before you wonder how this is possible, let me clarify: No, they are not travelling to space; instead, the government is modifying the official country's age counting system by passing a new law, making them a year or two younger.

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South Korea's parliament passed a law on Thursday, December 8, which scrapped its traditional way of calculating the 'Korean age' and is going to adopt the international standard. 

What is the Korean age? 

  • So, according to Korean age, a child is one year old at birth and gains one year on New Year's Day. And if a baby is born on December 31, it would be considered two years old the next day (December-borns get two birthdays in a month)!

  • A distinct system exists for conscription reasons or determining the legal drinking and smoking age, in which a person's age is determined from zero at birth and a year is added on January 1.

All these systems often lead South Koreans into a conundrum for just calculating their age. 

So, More than 80% of South Koreans supported unifying the age-counting system, according to a September poll by the Ministry of Government Legislation, NPR reports.

A campaign issue? South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had promised to unify the country's age-counting systems on the campaign trail earlier this year, (he became the president in May 2022) saying that they created "unnecessary social and economic costs". (here's something else that Yoon Suk Yeol is doing and is in the news for)

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Photo: President Yoon Suk Yeol/TIME

Since the 1960s, Asian countries have also been counting their citizens' official ages using the international system, in which babies start at zero and years are added every birthday. 

However, some countries, such as China, have their own system of determining birthdays, which is similar to the 'Korean age' method.

Last updated: December 09, 2022 | 14:58
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