Japanese actor Shu Watanabe is facing a wave of outrage after a clip from a 2021 interview resurfaced online, in which he answered a question about whether he would date a 15-year-old. The clip has spread rapidly across social media, with fans calling his response “creepy and inappropriate.”
(Credits: Koreaboo)
What Shu Watanabe Said in the 2021 Interview
In the resurfaced video, the interviewer asked the actor what age he thought about when it came to dating — specifically raising the example of a 15-year-old. Watanabe responded that as long as it was “legal,” with parents’ consent and mutual consent between both parties, he wouldn’t mind.
He then added that for him, age wasn’t really the issue — it was more about “mental age.” That phrasing has become the focal point of the backlash, with commenters arguing that an adult framing mental maturity as a justification for dating a teenager is deeply troubling.
Why Fans Are Furious Now
The outrage is intensified by the context of the era: when the interview was recorded, Japan’s legal age of consent was 13 — a threshold that has since been raised to 16 after sweeping reforms in 2023. To many critics, Watanabe’s “as long as it’s legal” answer reads as a loophole-based defense rather than a flat rejection.
Reactions on X have been blistering. Fans who once followed the actor are publicly distancing themselves, with one viral post stating he “SHOULD REALLY CLARIFY THIS MESSED UP SHIT RIGHT NOW.” Others argue the actor should have simply said no, regardless of what the law allowed.
As of now, Watanabe has not publicly addressed the resurfaced clip.
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Source: Koreaboo — read the full story there.
