Fix the population crisis before it’s too late

The government must pay heed to advice from experts to explore measures to raise the adaptability and sustainability of society under the given population conditions instead of setting a specific population goal.

The government vowed to aggressively correct the ultra-low birthrate that challenges the country’s long-term viability. It already pledged to set up a government office and a presidential secretariat office for the cause. Instead of rounding up existing polices, this time the government set specific policy objectives to support the balance in family and work, childcare and housing. The budget related to the birthrate, of which 87 percent currently goes to subsidizing childcare, will even out to support the balance in family life and work.

The new direction came after an extensive survey on households. The policies include providing unconditional government support, automatically approving unsettled parental leave requests, increasing short-term childcare breaks and increasing housing supply through the use of greenbelt zones.

Regardless of the extra efforts, the additional steam won’t be enough; there are simply too many social and cultural stumbling blocks. To improve the work-life balance, workplace cooperation is pivotal. Female workers will be less hesitant toward getting pregnant if the company gives them sufficient, well compensated parental leaves. But in most workplaces, the burden of work from parental leave must be split between co-workers. The self-employed, small workplaces and workers of precarious conditions cannot afford taking parental leave. Work hours remain low, and the burden for private education is too heavy.

At home, the responsibility of child-rearing and household maintenance falls largely on women. Without changes in these realistic and cultural issues, women will continue to put off giving birth and raising children. The amelioration of a competitive environment and the excessive density of the capital region must be addressed. The competition rate in the capital region is the highest while its the birthrate is the lowest.

But the government deferred demanding the structural actions needed to ease the population concentration in the capital region and its fierce competition as long-term goals. “The public policy on the population remains reliant on birth and welfare support,” said Cho Kyung-tae, head of the Population Policy Research Center at Seoul National University.

The Financial Times recently highlighted the worsening fertility rate in Finland despite its generous childcare and family-friendly policy. Although not as extreme as ours, decreasing births are a trend most developed countries are grappling with. We may have to broaden our spectrum by admitting the limit of reversing the depopulation trend simply through the promotion of births. The government must pay heed to advice from experts to explore measures to raise the adaptability and sustainability of society under the given population conditions instead of setting a specific population goal.