[Viewpoint] We Must Study Japan Again Now

Japan's "Lost 30 Years" Now Lie Ahead of Us
We Must Study Their Precedent and Prepare for the Future

What is the most painful experience in the world? People may have different answers, but one of the most frequent responses might be childbirth. There is even a passage in the Bible about the pain of childbirth: "To the woman he said, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children... (Genesis)'." In the past, about 7% of mothers died during childbirth. Many mothers cite childbirth as the most painful experience. The pain is so intense that they scream.

However, I recently heard that Japanese women do not make loud noises when giving birth. An acquaintance who has been teaching Korean at a Japanese university for nearly 30 years explained that it is "to avoid causing trouble to those around them." Many suppress their screams and only make moaning sounds. I am also aware of Japan’s ‘Meiwaku (迷惑)’ culture, which emphasizes not causing inconvenience to others in order to live harmoniously. Still, it is hard to understand.

As I continued listening, I thought that Japanese people also do not know much about us. When I tell students that the Japanese Empire colonized Korea, the most common reaction is "This is the first time I’ve heard about it." This is because they did not learn about it in school. Although they have consistently said they did not know for decades, there is a different context between not knowing in the past and not knowing now. In the past, after discussing the Japanese colonial period, there were many cases where Japanese students engaged in reflection and discussions on improving Korea-Japan relations. But nowadays, when the topic of Japanese occupation comes up, they say, "This is the first time I’ve heard of it, and I can’t believe it." Korea is known as the country of K-pop culturally and is an economic powerhouse with higher wages than Japan economically. The logic is that they cannot believe Japan forcibly occupied Korea.

In reality, the average monthly salary for a Japanese university graduate industrial worker is about 220,000 yen (approximately 2,021,100 KRW). The 2024 minimum wage in South Korea is 9,860 KRW per hour, which amounts to 2,060,740 KRW monthly (based on a 40-hour workweek). The starting salary for Japanese university graduates is equal to or lower than South Korea’s minimum wage. Japan is certainly not what it used to be. The world’s top economic power boasting a per capita income of $45,000 in the late 1980s no longer exists. This is due to the long-term economic stagnation known as the "Lost 30 Years." Japan’s per capita income ranking has dropped to around 30th place. The average wage of employed people is lower than in South Korea. Various analyses have been made about why Japan experienced the Lost 30 Years. However, regardless of what anyone says, the biggest reason Japan was trapped in long-term low growth was its demographic structure. The proportion of the population aged 65 and over is about 30%, the highest in the world. Meanwhile, the birth rate is only 1.26. There are fewer people working and more people to support.

In fact, Japan has now begun to pull itself out of the low-growth swamp. Stock prices and real estate prices are rising. Wages have also started to increase. Japan’s birth rate hit bottom at 1.26 in 2005 and has since been stagnant. Meanwhile, South Korea’s birth rate was 1.08 in 2005 and 0.78 in 2022. It seems like it cannot go any lower, but it is still declining. A Statistics Korea official said that the birth rate likely fell to the 0.6 range in the fourth quarter of last year. Both Japan and South Korea are in a swamp. But Japan is getting out, and we are sinking. We need to study how Japan escaped the swamp.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.