South Koreans To Become 1 Or 2 Years Younger: Here's How And Why

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There's no rewinding time - unless you live in South Korea - I mean, not really but as a result of a new age-counting law, South Koreans will soon be a year or two younger.

There are plans for South Korea to abandon its traditional method of determining ages and adopt a standard that will remove one or two years from people's ages on official documents, but this may take some time to take effect on a daily basis.

The National Assembly of the country passed a set of bills on Thursday requiring the use of the international age-counting system, which is based on the birth date of the individual.

In South Korea, babies are considered to be a year old when they are born, and another year is added every 1st of January. The increasingly unpopular custom means that a baby born on New Year's Eve becomes two years old immediately.

For South Koreans, a separate system of calculating the age of entry into national service and the legal drinking and smoking age is used. A person's age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on New Year's Day.

"The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socioeconomic 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.

What Is The 'Korean Age'?

According to South Korean law, a child is considered a year old when he or she is born. The child gains an additional year as the year changes on 1 January.

The South Koreans also count age according to their birth year rather than days. Thus, a child born in December is already two by the beginning of January.

The origins of the system are unclear. Some believe that turning one year old at birth takes into account the time spent in the womb - with nine months being rounded up to twelve. Other theories attribute the origins to an ancient Asian numerical system that did not have the concept of zero.

It is more complex to determine the reasons for the extra year added on January 1. It has been suggested that ancient Koreans placed the year of their birth within the Chinese 60-year cycle, but, at a time when there were no regular calendars, they ignored the date of their birth and simply added a whole year to the lunar calendar on January 1st.

As more South Koreans began following the western calendar, an extra year on January 1st became common.

Although some people said they would continue to use their "Korean age" in daily life, others said they were delighted at the prospect of going back in time.