With the election of Yoon Seok Yeol in the 20th presidential election, attention is focused on whether the 'age calculation method,' which was promised by the candidate, will be implemented.
In his short pledge during his candidacy, President-elect Yoon Seok Yeol promised to unify the legal age calculation method based on the global age, rather than using the Korean age calculation that has been widely used in Korean society.
Accordingly, under the Yoon Seok Yeol administration, the age of all citizens is expected to be at most two years younger.
There are three main ways to calculate your age in Korea: your actual age according to your birthday, the age according to the birth year, and the Korean age that is used by everyone in Korean society.
The first way of counting age in Korea is self-explanatory, and it is the global calculation method in which a person calculates their age according to their birthday. The second there is the 'year age,' which is calculated based on the year of birth, and all individuals born a certain year will be the same age regardless of their birth month.
The Korean age is the uniform age used by the Korean society and adds one more year to your age in the new year. For example, a person who is born in December 1992 would be 31 this year since a new year has started. So if someone asks "How old are you?" to a person born in December, that person would still say "31" even though their birthday has not passed. This is the Korean age.
Therefore, there are some individuals who are actually two years younger if they follow the birth age following the Gregorian calendar.
In the current law, age according to a person's birthday is applied only as a standard for tax, medical care, and welfare, and in some laws, such as the Youth Protection Act and the Military Service Act, the age according to the birth year is applied.
However, this varied age counting method has caused much confusion previously in South Korea. Therefore, Yoon Seok Yeol promised to unify the legal age counting method to prevent further confusion. Now that he has been elected as the president, many are wondering if he would be implementing this change through his administration.
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Tradition and culture is always important of course. But when it comes to age, considering they actually do use real age for legal documents, etc, I think moving to a more uniform way of counting in line with the rest of the world is the right decision.