Damn, man! I hate feminists as well, but this post wasn't needed!

Absolute truth.

Let me break it up to make things a little clearer.

Age of character
While there are laws in place for the legal age of sex, 18 in most prefectures, 13 in some (but under very strict guidelines in those cases), generally the law takes a very lax view of it, if girls as young as 16 are being sexually active, regardless of the age of the man theyre doing so with, legally police tend to only step in if theres some form of monitary exchange, such as paying for or bribing with gifts, if a 16 year old woman and a 21 year old man are together as a couple, or even if the man was 35 or more, and they were found to be sexually active, the authoried would first contact the parents of the girl, and if the parents objected to it then the man would be cautioned, if they were aware of it and accepting of the partner, then no criminal charges can be applied.

"Schoolgirl"
Most schools in Japan operate on a time frame where pretty much everyone in their final school year will be or reach the age of 18, where theyre legally able to sleep with anyone they wish, additionally some schools offer further education or "university prep" classes which can run from ages 18-20.

Most commonly however, the year the student finishes school they either attend summer school, or take private tuition, which in the case of this game would be what's actually going on, she is therefore, an 18 year old taking summer class to prepare for university. the very name of the game suggests this with "Summer lessons"

It's extremely common for young adults taking these courses (both male and female) to continue to wear their previous schools uniform even though the tuition is occuring in their own home, or the home of the tutors, because it sets a clear divide between casual free time and educational time.

Appearance
Anyone who has visited Japan will tell you, generally women look 14-18 way in to their 20s, lots still look very young in to their early 30s, I'm in my early 30s and people still tell me I only look about 22.

That's just the genes in play, but the telltale signs of age become even harder to spot when the character is wearing a school uniform, at which point the focus shifts from triggering minor details in the face to very generalized observations "small chest, school uniform, she must be 13-15", generally Japanese women in the highest grouping, have small chests, some remain extremely flat chested throughout their lives, combine that with the average slander body type, and the longer length of time where youthfulness is retained, with the age-masking effects of a rendered character and you end up with a character who will look deceptively younger than she actually is.

Attitudes
While publicly, attitudes towards sex are more conservative in Japan, in many ways it's also more open, it's not uncommon for a businessman to be openly viewing pornography on trains in the evening, likewise, it's not uncommon to see young women wearing netted tops without bras in summer, where seeing portions of said womans breast/nipple is relatively easy, but generally nobody makes a scene.

The availability of porn, both real and drawn, is widespread, as such everyone is more or less desensitized to it - i've had american friends visit and stand mouth agape in a convenience store because theres hentai with obvious nudity sat openly on the shelf, to them, even though sex is spoken of so openly in america, the idea of such stuff in the average store shelf seems alien.

Differences of culture
I've seen people say "oh my god sony showed a pink vita then stated its FOR WOMEN, so sexist!", no, just no, fuck you, you know nothing or japan and need to just shut your damn mouth. Women here, LOVE pink, if a console releases in a multitude of colors, almost without fail, the woman (not just girls here, ADULT women) will pick pink.

They pick pink cars, pink clothes, pink shoes, pink watches, pink everything, that's just how women here are.

At the same time women don't look at things like this game and think "oh my god such objectification, so disgust, much dramas" hell some women would actually be pulling out their sellphones to buy it themselves, but generally most would be like "ehhh kawaii nee" because the character is cute, they don't see it as a disgusting rape sim like extremist westerners would, they just see it for what it is, a game with a cute girl, and a crazy experience of being transported to a digital world that feels realistic.

most westerners don't get it, and they latch on to japanese games and media and throw a fit on behalf of japanese women, or try to apply the disgust for women in general, completely ignoring the fact that this game will never see the light of day outside of Japan, where nobody really gives a shit about the drama people elsewhere are drumming up about it.

And that's all it really is, just another day, another contraversey, another "see look, we're being oppressed" bulletpoint for people hell bent on destroying something they don't actually give two shits about beyond the ability to cause a scene over a perceived injustice.

And it isn't just me who feels that way, all the other women at the development office (oh my god, women in the games industry?!?!?!) have brought up the topic multiple times, and the general feeling is "they need to shut up and let people enjoy what they want to enjoy".

As for the vending machines, despite what Mach is telling you, it's not true, there have been at cetain times, vending machines with such shit in but these are usually inside sex shops or in very dodgy areas surrounded by love hotels and massage parlors, there are no pantie-vending-machines just sat on the average street, and more ironically the ones that DO/DID exist, are just new underwear , or new underwear that have been scented, actual used underwear has never actually been vended, it's just an urban myth.

These vending machines are purely for sexual gratification, not really sure who made you believe they existed so raped women could change their panties, that's fucked up, and so far from the truth i'm not even sure how i feel about answering it, if you see someone suggesting this to be the case, you are probably safe to call them out on being a bullshitting weeaboo that's never actually been.

Sorry Mach, but you fell for the internet bullshit machine.

Maybe I should have reread his post but I was only confirming the underware in the vending machine as you stated.  As you stated, I have seen some crazy stuff in vending machines in Japan but of course I never visited any sex shops, love hotels or massage parlors.....really!!

you should spend less time looking for panty vending machines and more time uploading an avatar :P

And you should spend less time telling people to upload and avatar and spend more time asleep, it's 4am for crying out loud, come to bed :P

Well put pokoko! We live in a 24 hour news world where time has to be filled and any subject becomes an issue to rant about from some perspective.

LOL, alright alright, coming now

Who are the 56 others?

This is something that bugs the absolute hell out of me.  The other day, someone responded to a sexy Japanese game by saying that it was wrong because the characters were made to look like children.  No, they're made to look like they're Japanese.

I dated a Japanese girl while she was in college.  She looked like she was 15 compared to girls of European origin.  She was around 5'1'' and 100 pounds.  She was a woman.  She had every right to that title, as much as any other woman.  The suggestion that men shouldn't be attracted to someone who fits those physical patterns is, to me, insulting to women.

People need to stop and think about this stuff before they get self-righteous.