Let's see -- if Japan is planning on revising the Civil Code in either a late 2009 Diet session, or sometime in 2010, and you're a Japanese citizen that is currently 15 or 16-years-old, you'll be glad to know that you'll be officially considered an adult in a couple of years. 

Mainichi says that the Japanese government has officially announced plans to drop the age of majority (the age of official adulthood) from 20 to 18. It's not like not being 18-years-old ever stopped anyone from drinking booze or smoking cigarettes, but they'll be legally doing so now.  Also, they'll be able to vote a couple of years earlier now, which I think is the whole point. 

Kanpai!