South Korea: Society on the brink

it's like the Aging Society is growing and it's it's a big issue the speed of Aging is really fast compared to uh any country's experiened our birth rate is also declining so fast population is falling a lot of women are scared to have children because of the reality of living in South Korea South Korea a nation heralded for its meteoric economic rise and vibrant culture finds itself at a crossroad after a remarkable Journey From the Ashes of post-war Devastation to Modern Prosperity that has brought forth complex challenges intertwining the threads of demographics the economy and societal values at the Forefront of those complex challenges is the falling birth rate which is now the world's lowest my name's J John I'm a documentary filmmaker I've been making films and television for 17 years I have been making a documentary around egg freezing the egg freezing um option is becoming a a growing Trend not just for women who have cancer but people who wanted to do it as a social egg freezing so without any medical problems uh storing your eggs in order to delay uh childbearing years in order to um get ahead in Life or chase a career or do other things and to look into having children at a later stage I am 38 years old uh 39 in a few months and then it's my last year of my 30s yeah Jin wants children one day it's about finding the right time before it's too late for a growing number of South Koreans like aspiring drummer and restorator euna having children is simply not on the agenda the reason why I don't want children or I didn't really thought about it is because I think Korea is a very bad Society a very bad condition to raise a child at this point South Korea is ranked the world's most expensive place to raise a child real estate prices are Sky High and the capital Soul where half the population lives is one of the world's top 10 most expensive cities to live the cost of raising a child in Korea is ridiculous not not about just buying your own house your own real estate it's also about what everybody judge you by their parents like what kind of brand you're wearing what kind of brand your baby is wearing prices are just so high with everything living costs uh just to get a home and uh and uh you know just to um put kids through education that's a lot of money it's probably unrealistic for people who are working in their Prime of their uh life or prime of their fertility age so before 35 it's really uh daunting to even think about being able to have a child and raise children whatever the true calls South Korea's plummeting birth rate has been making headlines the reality though is the trend is decades old and not just being driven by women or singles for so the trend is not new the problem in Korea is the drop is so fast it's like a gradual decrease and then it you know just uh uh collapse so we are actually having the lowest birth rate in the world uh the earliest number that we have at the present is 1960 it was believe it or not 6.1 so an average Korean woman was expected to have six children now that fell to about 2. uh 06 2.1 is the ideal replacement rate if you want to make the uh population steady and that was in 1983 in 2005 uh the total fertility rate was 1.8 but it dropped to below 08 uh as of 2023 so it is simply simply the lowest Clues as to how this came about lie in South Korea's dramatic economic rise a few decades after the Korean war after the Korean where nothing remained nothing remained no economic infrastructure no uh uh you know economic uh you know resources and South Korea was probably the poorest country in the world that kind of PR country in the whole world has been industri industrialized quickly for the last 50 years so it became uh in terms of GDP the 10th largest economy so that was something unprecedented experience in modern history but because that economic growth happened in so compressed a period of time now we are witnessing a lot of issues and a lot of problems you know Advanced countries they achieved that level of economic growth and economic development over centuries so over centuries they changed their social infrastructure and cultural political and all the other important uh institutional Dimensions had time to grow had time to evolve with the economic development but in Korea the economic development is so fast the other very important institutional Dimensions were not able to keep up with that economic growth Basics like welfare support shorter working hours and maternity leave are only just beginning to take hold in Korea one thing that did track with economic growth was the Health Care system which is so good Koreans are now living longer than ever for because of the demographics by about 2050 we will have about two working age persons for every retired person and not every uh working age person will work so by rough calculation there will be about 1.5 working working age people to every retired person that means if you have a pay as you go welfare system that's just unsustainable the trend isn't unique to Korea in fact it's common in many advanced economies which deal with the problem through Mass immigration and South Korea would struggle to survive right now without the more than 1 million foreign workers in the country most doing unskilled jobs on short-term fixed visas that don't allow them to stay on after their contract is finished the government has a plan that plan may have difficulty getting traction especially the older Koreans are even though uh they may not be racist per se they do not really like multiculturalism so a lot of the older segment of the population do not like the idea of more immigration or even more temporary workers Koreans are very um conservative with other cultures um I mean even for me I have um my my colleague well she's my employee but um she's from Myanmar and and my customers all kind of look at her um not a very favorable reaction I would say I think it's another homework for Koreans to embrace the government has and is trying many other policies aimed at boosting the population though there's been little success so far for raising the birth rate in South Korea Korean government spent more than uh 300 billion US dollars for the last 10 years but turns out with nothing result almost that means Korean government and Korean Society is not touching the the the fundamental solution of raising birth rate fundamental Solutions need to be found because time is quickly running out thanks to rapid rapid Aging in South Korea the national pension accumulated money will be depleted by 2060 so that means the young people like 20s and 30s of this year will not be paid when they retired after 2060 so that is another serious problem in South Korea as the national pension system dries up more Koreans are asking the question why retire at all u y young chose to remain childree and single now in her 50s she's planning for the future and retirement is not part of the [Music] plan uh for that sentiment is shared by E her husband sees a similar Trend at the store he manages for the idea of delaying retirement or putting it off alt together is not just something ruminating in people's minds it's now at least semi-official government policy for example the soul Metropolitan government is now promoting retraining programs like this one for seniors who want to remain in the workplace here people learn or refresh skills such as how how to write a resume hunt for a job do that hunting online via a smartphone as well as tips on using that phone to navigate to the potential future employer's office and deal with the fact that potential boss maybe four decades younger an awkward conundrum in what is still a very Confucian Society demand for these classes has grown so fast centers like this are having to turn people [Music] away of course it's not a complete solution obvious that older people have you know less productivity than young people people some believe robots with artificial intelligence is the answer [Music] [Music] in South Korea the use of robots is already widespread it's not just chicken being subjected to algorithms while machines like this might be fantastic at solving the labor shortage issue and making a fantastically consistent coffee there's one big problem they don't pay income tax which brings us back to the problem of who will pay for schools hospitals and basic infrastructure not to mention those shrinking pensions another more immediate problem for many pensioners who don't want to prolong their working life is loneliness for here robots are also helping hosun Chan is one of about 7,000 elderly Koreans to receive a hodol it looks like a rag doll but it's an AI robot this companion robot has a lot of sensors inside so when you touch it it's speaks back like and when I touch the head such as like hey I love you like I'm so happy to be with you please hang out with me like that and we uh mostly Guardian can setting the alarm things so what time to get out what time to take a medicine and what time to take a workout like that Sunan initially wanted to give the doll back not anymore for Guardians can be children or other family members though more often than not they're social workers like Kim minak he oversees the well-being of about 30 elderly people a huge number for a single Guardian he says the hlls built in alarm sensors save social workers from endless safety calls freeing up time for higher quality Care a survey of two 100 elderly people found a marked change in mood after exposure to the doll we got a resch about um their suicide thinking was um a lot decreased because of this [Music] robot the doll also helps with General [Music] Health for of course a robot is no substitute for real human companionship but South Korea will soon have a disproportionate number of elderly people with no children or grandchildren to make even occasional visits so the end goal remains to somehow boost the birth rate and perhaps it's not all about High real estate prices and the high cost of raising children perhaps it's also to do with Rebellion against cultural expectations so much has changed since our parents's time and our grandparents' time um so before women couldn't enjoy the freedom that we enjoy today A lot of people are blaming sort of the uh Korean culture which leaves all the child wearing problems all the child wearing responsibilities to the women of the household and men do not participate that much in housework at all uh so uh that puts an undue uh hardship on women who work I talked with my wife because of this interview and she told me a similar thing every Korean woman has some kind of deep down resentment about against the social system the value system in Korea even if they are not limited by those kind of confusion you know philosophies these days could it be as simple as men doing a 50% share of things around the house like cooking doing the dishes and the laundry and of course looking after Junior it certainly wouldn't hurt and it might play a part in a bigger solution even a revolution open your you know mind and open your heart and you needed to define the family in a more modern way they got a be uh truly revolutionary change that cannot be done by government alone that cannot be done by you know education Educators teachers alone they cannot be done by some social organizations and NOS alone so it takes uh every part of Korean Society to realize that uh we got to change our way of thinking we got to change our uh you know uh philosophy towards the family towards the family value I can see that you know the we're going to struggle the the country is going to struggle with um low fertility rate schools are all closing down um who's going to pay for the pensioners and the old elderly people um it's a it's a question that really needs to be addressed but I think everyone is just in this Rat Race to make it work for them they're just too busy living their life so the revolution may be limited to government and industry South Korea should be going through uh revitalization of Korean economy by reconstruction of the industry from manufacturing concentrated to high-tech like it or bio uh industry uh concentrated otherwise uh South Korean economy will be stagnated uh next 100 years I think South Korea's Journey from an economic Miracle to a complex demographic landscape embodies the Paradox of progress this Collision of economic growth and changing values is reshaping the nation's trajectory standing at the Crossroad the choices made will redefine the future in navigating these challenges South Korea is rewriting The Narrative of prosperity and redefining the very essence of family and Society it's still a story in the making and crafting a new Destiny will involve embracing uncertainty change and bold new ideas Jack Barton for assignment Asia in South Korea follow us on social media to contribute story ideas and share your [Music] thoughts 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Channel: CGTN

Views: 546,171

Keywords: CGTN, News, Korea, southKorea, agingsociety, 老龄化, elderly, population, 韩国, 韩国老龄化, documentary, Korean

Id: wBwkGQngcLA

Length: 29min 30sec (1770 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 06 2023