While talking on the phone with a Korean acquaintance, he lamented.

While talking on the phone with a Korean acquaintance, he lamented.
“Korea is losing the vitality of society due to its shrinking population.”

I don’t hear them laugh. It’s not because they’re depressed, but rather because they’re depressed. It’s not easy to meet them in the neighborhood right now.

But… it’s easy that the causal relationship has changed.
“Isn’t the population shrinking because there is no vitality in society?”

Even with very narrow data and experience of leaving Korea 15 years ago and observing it as an outsider, I feel that Korean society is not lively. It’s like… like Korea observed by a cheeky foreigner who became famous last weekend…

But don’t people who live in that space for 24 hours, have children born, and worry about whether these children and grandchildren will live in that space know the atmosphere and feeling that outsiders can see even if they experience it for a while? I don’t think so.

I talked for a while with an expert who recently visited the U.S. from Korea. Both of them have been contemplating Korean mental health for 10 years. I am an outsider. I have observed, pointed out problems, and suggested alternatives with the eyes of outsiders. But I did not live in that space breathing.

But the expert has lived in that space for the past 10 years. The person who spent that time showed his frustration and helplessness to me as an outsider.
“I know everything, but I can’t.”

I think that many young people living in Korea and good people who dream of change are the most accurate expressions for evaluating the space of Korea. I tried hard, but faced with a rigid decision-making process and ridiculous administrative convenience, I would also suffer from lethargy in the space of Korea.

“I know everything, but I can’t.”
It is a fundamental perception that prevents young people from leaving Korea or appearing through childbirth in Korea.

It is not that the fertility rate is low and the vitality of society disappears, but frustrated young people do not give birth because they do not have the vitality of society.