All South Koreans are getting younger on June 1
This is not thanks to a miracle recipe or an exceptional makeover but it is a legal decision. The government has put an end to an administrative specificity that allowed three different age accounting systems to coexist. This law, which enters into force this Thursday, June 1, is a standardization measure to limit confusion and to adapt to international standards.
On a street in Seoul. Wikipedia
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with our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
Asking the age of a South Korean is no guarantee of a simple answer. International age? Korean age? Or the one of the calendar? The three accounting systems will eventually disappear, at least in official documents.
The international age assumes that we age by one year on each birthday. In South Korea, it is used in the administrative context, and the Korean age remains very much in the majority in everyday life. Rooted in China, this system counts the nine months spent in the mother's womb, rounded up to one year. Thus, a child is born at one year. And it is on January 1st that we add an extra year, not on his birthday.
Finally, a third accounting mode mixes the two systems. A baby is zero years old at birth and ages one year on January 1. It is used in particular for military service. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, born in December 1960, is 62, 63 or 64 years old.
This confusion disappears this Thursday, June 1st: the international age becomes the only system on the administrative level, because of a law voted last December. But it is difficult to imagine the Korean age disappearing from the private sphere, its use is widespread in a country where the social hierarchy remains influenced by the year of birth.
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