Joo Hyung-hwan, who served as vice chair of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy, has published a new book detailing 700 days of policy work during his tenure, titled “A 700-Day Record of a Major Population Policy Shift: From Freefall to Rebound.”
The book chronicles a shift from narrow low-birthrate measures to a broader population strategy spanning the full life cycle. With pessimism growing that “nothing works” despite years of policies and budget spending that failed to deliver results, Joo diagnoses the limits of past approaches and lays out alternative solutions.
When Joo took office in February 2024, the total fertility rate stood at 0.72, the lowest on record. Projections that it could fall to 0.65 this year heightened the sense of a national population crisis.
Arguing that the moment required a policy paradigm shift, he pushed to reorganize priorities around three pillars: work, caregiving and housing. For an ultra-aged society, he also called for moving beyond a welfare-centered approach and stressed innovation from an industrial perspective, pointing to areas such as age tech and a dementia-related asset market.
A central theme is a move away from short-term fixes toward structural responses. He writes that the government pursued mid- to long-term tasks in parallel, including easing the burden of private education costs, reducing overconcentration in the Seoul metropolitan area and introducing inclusive immigration policies.
“The population crisis is not an impossible problem; it is a task we can reverse if we bring together society’s capabilities,” Joo said. He said the book aims to present the process and results of the policy shift, along with remaining challenges.
“A 700-Day Record of a Major Population Policy Shift: From Freefall to Rebound” runs 412 pages and was published by 21st Century Books. It is priced at 24,000 won. The publication date is 2026년 3월 20일.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.