Seoul: South Koreans became a year or two younger as new laws that require using only the international method of counting age took effect, replacing the country’s traditional method.
People in South Korea are considered to be a year old at birth, and a year is added on January 1st, according to the age system that is most frequently used in daily life. The nation has utilised the worldwide standard of starting at zero at birth and adding a year on every birthday for medical and legal papers since the early 1960s. But for everything else, a large portion of South Koreans kept using the conventional approach.
In December, South Korea passed laws to scrap the traditional method and fully adopt the international standard. Minister of Government legislation Lee Wan-kyu said, “We expect legal disputes, complaints and social confusion that have been caused over how to calculate ages will be greatly reduced.”
As per a government survey conducted in September, 86% of South Koreans said they would use the international age in their everyday life when the new laws took effect. “I was about to turn 30 next year (under the traditional Korean age system) but now I have some more time and I love it,” Choi Hyun-ji, a 27-year-old office worker in Seoul, said.