Disappearing South Korea…Population Policy Paradigm Shift Necessary

Korea is disappearing. South Korea's population is declining, even as the world's population is projected to exceed 10 billion by 2059 from the current 8 billion. This is because Japan's fertility rate is ranked as the lowest in the world, and the country is rapidly entering a super-aging society. Experts agree that countermeasures are urgently needed.

South Korea's population is expected to decline from 52 million last year to 38 million in 2070, according to the National Statistics Office on Thursday. The total fertility rate has fallen to 0.81 (as of 2021), as the number of people who are not getting married is increasing, and the number of people who are not having children even though they are married is increasing. Under these circumstances, the working-age population peaked at 73.4% in 2012 and is expected to decline gradually and reach 46.1% in 2070. The elderly population was expected to increase sharply to 46.4%.

The thing is “Aging = low growth”. As a result, the industry will lose its vitality, and the burden of pension, medical care, and social security costs will snowball, adding to the burden on the younger generation. Professor Cho Yong-tae of Seoul National University said, "If the declining birthrate policy was a welfare policy that raised the birth rate, now we have to shift to a population policy that considers balance. It is important to change," he stressed.

When 700,000 people were born a year and we lived in a fiercely competitive society, we were forced to pay more attention to ``individual survival'' rather than "reproduction". Considering that less than 400,000 children are born each year, it is necessary to shift the paradigm so that the emphasis is on reproduction rather than individual survival. In order to do so, he pointed out that labor reform, pension reform, and education reform centered on extending the retirement age should be carried out together.

In 2004, Japan also promoted pension reform, revised the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons, and extended the retirement age. Currently, the Japanese government has recommended that private companies have to hire people at the age of 65 but has recently extended it to the age of 70. If the retirement age can be extended to maintain physical and mental vitality, the younger generation will be able to reduce the burden of supporting their families, as well as reduce welfare costs and alleviate the burden on pensions.