Yoon wants to clear confusion on Koreans' ages

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Yoon wants to clear confusion on Koreans' ages

Lee Yong-ho, chief of the presidential transition team's subcommittee for political, judicial and administrative affairs, announces plans to scrap the Korean age system in a press briefing in Tongui-dong, central Seoul, Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Lee Yong-ho, chief of the presidential transition team's subcommittee for political, judicial and administrative affairs, announces plans to scrap the Korean age system in a press briefing in Tongui-dong, central Seoul, Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol's transition team said Monday that it plans to change the way Koreans count ages, which generally adds at least a year to the international way of counting.  
 
The transition team's subcommittee for political, judicial and administrative affairs announced an initiative to adopt the standard international system of counting an individual's age to reduce the social and economic costs of the confusion caused. This was one of Yoon's campaign pledges.
 
Korea actually uses three age calculation systems: the Korean age, in which people are considered one-year-old at birth; the international counting system; and a scheme in which an individual grows one year older on the first day of the new year.
 
Under the so-called Korean age system, an individual turns one on the day they are born and gains a year on the first day of each new year, the most widely used calculation method.  
 
The second is the globally recognized international system, where age is calculated by an individual's birthday and the first birthday is celebrated 365 days after birth. 
 
The third method is calculation by year of birth, in which the individual's age is counted based on the year they were born, regardless of which month they were born. 
 
Thus, depending on the individual's birthday, one can have three different ages. For example, an individual born in May 2020 will be considered three in Korean age, one under the standard international age and two under the year scheme.
 
People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Lee Yong-ho, head of the judicial subcommittee, said the transition team is pushing to merge the three age systems and recognize only the international age.
 
Lee said in press briefing, "Due to the lack of a unified calculation method for the legal and social age, we have experienced unnecessary social and economic costs from persisting confusion and disputes over calculating age when receiving social welfare and other administrative services or signing various contracts."
 
The Korean age system causes confusion when, for example Covid-19 vaccines are allowed for "children under 12 years old" or even referring to retirement age for seniors.  
 
In 1962, the government formalized the age standard for taxes and other laws using the international system.  
 
However, Koreans continued to use all three age systems.
 
The Ministry of Government Legislation plans to submit an amendment to the General Act on Public Administration to the National Assembly this year and hopes to pass it sometime next year, said Yoon's transition team. The ruling Democratic Party in the past proposed a similar plan but didn't follow through.
 
Lee said society will benefit from having a unified age system, comparing it to Korea's transition from a land lot-based address system to one based on street names in 2011.  
 

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
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