Ariticle1Definition of a child

This article defines a “child” who is a party to the Convention as “every human being below the age of eighteen years”. However, at the same time, as an exception, if a child reaches the age of majority earlier under the law applicable to children in a State Party, "a person below the age of majority" is defined as a “child” accordingly.

For example, in Japan, girls aged between 16 and 18 were once considered to have attained the age of majority when they married. However, this exception does not apply in Japan, as it is now virtually impossible for girls to marry between the ages of 16 and 18 following the reduction of the age of majority to 18.

Therefore, there are two possible endpoints for the age of a “child”: the age of 18 or the age of majority according to the law applicable to children in the State Party.

On the other hand, however, the article does not state anything about the point at which the age of the “child” begins. There are two views on this, one that defines the definition as when a child is born and the other as when a parent conceives a child and since the discussion was not settled, it was not included in the article. Therefore, it is entirely up to each State Party to decide whether to adopt the former or the latter. In Japan, in order to ensure consistency and avoid contradictions between the legal systems and the interpretations, the definition of the beginning of a “child” is not “when the parent conceives a child”, but ”when the child is born.”