[lifthrasiir]

South Korea provides an evidence that this understanding is not only naive but also actively damaging the society. SK's fertility rate hit the record low of 0.84 in 2020 (compare with Japan's 1.36 in the same year), primarily because increasingly more people chose not to marry. There are a multitude of reasons, including pervasive misogyny which acts as a negative feedback to prevent further marriages. But regardless of the reasons, there is no reason to believe the fertility rate will recover by its own without active policies (of which SK crucially lacks).

[Ferrotin]

South Korea just had an election which may change its direction in that regard.

[lifthrasiir]

You probably wouldn't have known but I watched the whole vote counting process all the night (6:50 am here). And Yoon, the president-elect, is not really known for his gender equality policies---he is a polar opposite to say the least.

[Ferrotin]

Yes, and because gender equality suppresses fertility [1], that would do the opposite.

[1] citation needed, and given Asian fertility rates, highly questionable

[lifthrasiir]

Oh yeah, a forced marriage will do a great job. (Thank you for the footnote by the way, I was a bit nervous at the first!)