Koreans are going to get younger by a year or even two years - at least on paper.
The reason: a law, approved by the parliament in Seoul, will abolish the "Korean age" as of June 2023 and transfer the citizens to the accepted international counting system.
Brief background: In South Korea, two methods are used to indicate age.
One is called the "Korean age" according to which the age at the moment of birth is one year.
Then a year is added to a person's age every new lunar year - and not on his birthday, as is customary all over the world.
Sounds complicated to you?
That's not all.
In South Korea, it is also customary to "count age" or the age of eligibility, in which the newborn is indeed zero years old at birth, but every January 1st, a year is added to it, regardless of the birthday.
This method is used to determine whether it is permissible to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.
And if these are not enough, there is also a third method - the one familiar to all of us - in which the newborn is registered as zero years old, and each new year is added to him on his birthday.
This method has been used by South Koreans since 1960 for medical and legal purposes.
For example, a Korean woman born on December 31, 2000, is today considered 22 years old according to the international system, but 23 years old according to the "Korean Age".
With all due respect to tradition, order should be made in the mess.
Candles are lit at Jogsa Temple in Seoul before the national university exam. Photo: AFP
The origin of this number of years is in ancient China.
In Vietnam and Japan it is still used, but only in certain religious ceremonies.
Both China and Japan have abandoned the ancient system in favor of the international system, and now South Korea is also joining.
"We want to bring order to the issue because the various methods cause many legal and social debates," said a representative of the ruling party, Yoo Sun Bum.
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