Students in Japan have submitted a petition to the country’s Justice Ministry asking to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16.

On Friday, November 20, the petition had over 40,000 signatures and was submitted to Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

Japan is one of a handful of countries to have such a low age of consent. The likes of Burkina Faso, Comoros, and Niger also have 13-years-old as their age of consent, while it’s 12 in the Philippines and Angola.

According to AgeOfConsent, Nigeria is the country with the world’s lowest age of consent, where it’s currently set at 11-years-old. Most countries have an age of consent between 16 and 18.

As of this writing, the ongoing Japanese petition has 40,853 signatures, with the hopes of it reaching 50,000.

“Imagine when you were 13 years old. What if your child was 13 years old? Think of your 13-year-old brother or sister,” the petition reads. “Can the 13-year-old show a Yes or No intention for sexual activity? Speaking of 13 years old, he is still a child and has little knowledge of sexuality.”

The age of consent is the minimum age of consent for sexual activity. So, in Japan, when nonconsensual sexual activity is performed, if the victim is 13 years old or older, the victim must prove “there was assault/intimidation” and “how much he resisted”.

Even if an adult cannot deny sexual activity, it won’t be treated as a sexual offense unless it can be proved that there was assault or intimidation.

Your Voice Matters – the group behind the petition – took to social media to thank people for their signatures.

“We are extremely thankful for all of your support towards our campaign. No words can describe how happy I am to know that many of us share the same passion towards protecting our children in Japan,” the group wrote. “Without all of your help, we wouldn’t have been able to get this far, and although it feels that it is not enough to express my gratitude for all of you on this post, I still wanted to thank all of you.”

Kwansei Gakuin, 21, and a member of Your Voice Matters expressed how important it is to raise the age of consent.

“It is important to raise the age of consent in order to protect minors who are still immature physically and psychologically from sex crimes in light of the fact sexual intercourse is not taught during compulsory education,” she told The Asahi Shimbun.