South Korea has passed legislation to abolish its traditional system of calculating ages in place of the international standard, resulting in citizens being one or two years younger on official documents. Koreans are considered to be a year old at birth, and a year is added on January 1 of every year. The most frequent age mentioned by Koreans in daily life is this one.
Another technique uses a person’s age starting at zero at birth and adding a year on January 1st to determine conscription eligibility or the legal drinking and smoking age.
However, South Korea has now utilized the worldwide standard of starting the calculation at zero at birth and adding a year on each birthday for medical and legal papers since the early 1960s.
When the new regulations that mandate using only the worldwide method of counting ages take effect in June 2023, the confusing variety of systems will vanish—at least on official documents.
“The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socio-economic costs because legal and social disputes, as well as confusion, persist due to the different ways of calculating age,” Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power party told parliament.
Reaction from South Koreans is mixed
Jeong Da-Eun, a 29-year-old office worker, is happy about the change and says she has always had to think twice when asked overseas about her age. “I remember foreigners looking at me with puzzlement because it took me so long to come back with an answer on how old I was.”
“Who wouldn’t welcome getting a year or two younger?” she added.
The origins of the system are uncertain in South Korea. According to one theory, the time spent in the womb, which is rounded up to nine months to equal 12, counts toward the one-year milestone at birth. Some attribute it to a prehistoric Asian numerical system that lacked the concept of zero.
The reasons for the extra year that began on January 1 are more intricate.