Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Voting age in other countries
By Jun Ji-hye
The most common minimum voting age in the world is 18 years old. This is the case in the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
The nation’s neighbor Japan, whose current minimum voting age is 20 years old, is also actively attempting to lower its voting age to 18 after bipartisan agreement had been made.
Argentina is even more progressive. Its initial voting age was set at 18, but it was lowered to 16 with a passage at the parliament on Oct. 31.
Other than Argentina, countries that have set the voting age to 16 are Austria, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Recently, Scotland's first Minister Alex Salmond and British Prime Minister David Cameron signed a referendum agreement last month that would allow Scotland to hold a referendum on independence sometime in late 2014.
According to the British press including the BBC, the age of 16 has been decided for participating in the referendum.
Plus, the Labour Party in Britain has pushed forward to lower its current voting age of 18 to 16.
The U.S., with a leading democracy system, had lowered its voting age to 18 in 1971 from 21 amid the antiwar movement after the Vietnam War.