A new age policy, counting age as international age, starts this June in South Korea.

South Koreans may soon be one or two years younger due to legislation approved by the nation's parliament last year on December 8 to do away with the traditional system of defining age.

Currently, most South Koreans utilize their "Korean age" in most informal contexts.

Koreans are one year old when they are born through this procedure.

Every January 1, another year is added to a person's age; thus, a newborn born on December 31 would be two years old the following day.

This system will be replaced by the one used by the rest of the world in June 2023, which does not count as a year old at birth, the calendar age.

A "calendar age" is a combination of the "international age" and "Korean age" systems, in which a newborn is born at zero years old but gains a year on January 1.

This approach determines the legal drinking, smoking, and military conscription ages (mandatory for all able-bodied South Korean men before they turn 35).

Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, made the shift a pledge during his campaign, citing the social and administrative costs incurred by the conventional approach in comparison to the global system.

Even today, the term "Korean age," which is based on the birth year rather than the precise birthday, is frequently employed in social settings in the nation.

The Asian country has also been keeping track of the official ages of its residents based on the international system since the 1960s, where babies start at age zero and years are added on each birthday.

According to the presidential spokesman Lee Jae-myoung, the streamlined age system "follows the global standard and avoids needless social and economic confusions."

As a result of different age-counting methodologies, the move is anticipated to address communication problems on both a national and international level.

In the Confucian culture of South Korea, where age differences influence interactions, the existing system has also led to some unpleasant misunderstandings.

Although China and Japan switched to the international system decades ago, East Asia once employed the conventional age-counting approach.

According to experts, South Korea has maintained the system because of its hierarchical culture.

According to Lee Wan-kyu, South Korea's minister of government legislation, "people discovering their age one or two years younger will produce a beneficial societal influence as well."

He claimed that the government would actively promote the new age philosophy in order to enable citizens to adopt it into daily life.

Kim Jung-kwon, a law professor at Seoul's Chung Ang University, stated to a federal panel on the subject last month that "not only administrative measures but also societal initiatives to break down the rank-based system" are required to implement the change.

Changing the age policy lessens people’s confusion between the ‘Korean age’ and ‘International age.’

This new policy will be the start of South Korea’s globalization, making Korea more inclusive with other countries.