“Recently, young Japanese people think of marriage and childbirth as a way of ‘self-realization.’ They have developed a value system that sees starting a family as a choice for a happy life and inner enrichment.”
Rie Morizumi, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, said this while attending the ‘2024 1st Korea-Japan-China Population Forum’ held in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. At this event, hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Human Resources Development Institute for Health and Welfare, scholars from Korea, Japan, and China met and shared their respective countries’ perceptions of marriage and childbirth among people in their 20s and 30s.
Researcher Morizumi introduced the results of the Basic Survey on Birth Trends conducted and published by the Japanese government every five years since 1940. In the 2021 survey, the number one reason for having children was “because life is enjoyable and enriches the mind.” Among single and married respondents aged 18 to 54 who had children or wanted children, 68 to 80% answered this way. This was significantly higher than the respondents who said “it happens naturally” (23 to 33%) and “people around them wanted it” (9 to 14%).
He said, “Japan has implemented policies for the past 30 years with the goal of creating a ‘dual-income, dual-child-raising society,’” and “A characteristic of recent measures to address the low birth rate is that they actively listen to the opinions of children and young people.”
Japan also had a low total fertility rate of 1.2 last year. Researcher Morizumi expressed concern, saying, “The spread of a culture that respects individual choice is an important social step forward, but there is also a risk that the value of the family will be lost more than necessary.” He continued, “Young people who grew up in a low-birthrate society have fewer opportunities to see pregnancy, childbirth, and even life with young children around them,” and suggested, “We should also pay attention to educational policies that help them experience family formation and establish family values.”
Hong Seok-cheol, a professor of economics at Seoul National University who moderated the panel discussion, said, “Efforts to increase the value of marriage, childbirth, and family are also needed in Korea.”
China is also facing growing concerns due to its rapidly aging population and the total fertility rate that fell to 1 last year. Dou Yang, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “With the aging population rapidly increasing, China is in a situation where it must respond to the low birth rate while also increasing productivity,” adding, “Among the various policies supporting childbirth, childcare, and childcare, it is necessary to prioritize public childcare.”
Lee Sang-rim, a senior researcher at Seoul National University’s Research Policy Research Center, said of the current government’s policy, “It perceives the low birth rate as a cost issue,” and diagnosed, “It will be difficult to overcome the low birth rate crisis if young people’s perception of the low birth rate is superficial and understood as a custom.”
The researcher cited the fact that, contrary to popular belief, young people have a low rate of negative perceptions of marriage. According to the center, the percentage of unmarried people who evaluated marriage positively was 39.8% for men and 23.5% for women in 2022, but the percentage of those who responded negatively was in the single digits for both.
He continued, “Young people are looking for various causes of the low birth rate, but the social survey data to understand their perceptions lacks precision,” and suggested, “We need to build data that takes an in-depth look into young people’s perceptions of the low birth rate.”
Jang Eun-seop, director of the Population Policy Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, who participated in the discussion, said, “In order to solve the low birth rate problem, we must also reform the social structure to reduce the excessive competition that young people experience,” and “We will focus our policy capabilities on transforming the levels of labor, education, and community welfare.”
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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2024-09-03 12:42:42