The latest forecast by Statistics Korea puts the population in 2072 at 36.2 million, a 30% decline from the current 51.7 million, even though the fertility rate may recover a bit to 0.68 in 2026. The population is expected to fall every year starting in 2025.
Seems to me that areas with crazy work life balance issues also have thriving idol industries. Makes me think they are related, guys don’t have time for real relationships so they have pretend parasocial ones instead