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By Euny Hong
Ms. Hong is the author of “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture.”
South Korea is in the midst of a childbearing catastrophe. Birthrates are dropping below replacement level all over the world, including in the United States, and South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, with only 0.75 children born for every woman of childbearing age. (Replacement level is considered 2.1 births per woman.) As a result, if the trend continues, South Korea’s population is expected to decline by half by the end of this century.
Why are South Koreans so reluctant to have children? There are the usual explanations: a high cost of living, young people delaying marriage and the stubbornly patriarchal nature of South Korean society — a problem so persistent that it sparked the feminist 4B movement, which contends that women should forgo four activities: dating men, having sex with men, marrying men and having kids. (The Korean prefix that denotes negation is pronounced “bee.”)
