‘I’m 30, Turning 29 Soon’: South Koreans Grow Younger as Govt Adopts International Age Counting Rule – News18

South Korea will join the international age counting standards this week starting Wednesday and South Korea will find themselves at least a year younger.

South Korea traditionally counts newborns as one year old. They are the only major country to count the age spent by a baby in a womb. However, starting Wednesday all judicial and administrative areas in the country will begin using the international standard or calendar age.

“Under the revisions to the Civil Act and the General Act on Public Administration, multiple age systems will be unified under the internationally recognized system in which age is based on birth date,” the nation’s Ministry of Government Legislation said, according to Yonhap.

The news agency further explained the age-counting tradition and said that under the commonly used system of so-called “Korean age,” a person turns 1 on the day they are born and then adds a year on the first-day of the new year.

So, a child born on New Year’s Day will become 2 years old by the time it is midnight.

This traditional counting system remained an important part of Korean society and daily life, including social settings and workplace as age hierarchies are considered important.

The government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol introduced the change and it was backed by the South Korean people. He also promised its implementation when he ran for office last year.

South Koreans will be spared from making any updates to their documents or IDs since the age used for government forms is based on the international system. The international system is also followed for retirement, pension and voting.

However, the mandatory military service and the age for school admissions follow the calendar age which takes into account the year of birth.

At least three quarters of the Korean population wanted these new changes. Gye Sang Hyuk, a convenience store owner, told Time Magazine that this will not cut young people off from alcohol and cigarette consumption as stores do not use the Korean age-counting system for ensuring if a person is above 19 years of age.