One hundred South Korean men and women, all dressed to impress and wearing name tags, met at a hotel outside of Seoul in the spirit of finding love. The government has high expectations for them to build families and have babies.
To Renew Interest in Marriage, Parenting
All the participants are attendees of a massive blind-dating event held in Seongnam, South Korea, where the local government is hoping to boost the country's dwindling birthrate by reviving interest in getting married and becoming parents.
According to Reuters, a relationship coach began the session with a rock-paper-scissors game, and the room was immediately filled with discussion and laughter among the participants, who were in their 20s and 30s.
A municipal employee named Lee Yu-mi, now 36 years old, claimed she had to apply three times before she was accepted to the event. "I had no idea it would be this competitive," she told Reuters.
The city said that after five rounds of activities this year, 198 out of 460 participants exited as couples, agreeing to share contact information with each other.
Participant Hwang Da-bin from September's event said that he was able to avoid spending money on other social gatherings and paid dating services because of this kind of affair. "We are facing a real demographic crisis and the government needs to do whatever it can," Hwang said. "I don't understand people complaining over this."
When faced with criticism that it would be a waste of taxpayers' money and fail to address the reasons why individuals are choosing not to marry and have kids, the South Korean capital of Seoul decided to shelve plans for a similar event. These reasons include the very high prices of housing and schooling.
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South Korea Reports Record Low Fertility Rate
The fertility rate in South Korea hit a new record low of 0.78 last year, marking another dismal milestone for the world's lowest number of expected children for each woman. Compared to the United States (1.66 in 2021) and Japan (1.3 in 2021), this figure is much lower. The average rate for nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development was 1.58 the same year.
According to Professor Jung Jae-hoon of Seoul Women's University's Department of Social Welfare, it is "nonsense" to assume that these happenings would result in increased birth rates. "You need to spend more money directly on supporting pregnancy, child delivery and parenting to call it a policy to boost birth rates," Jung explained.
Thousands of individuals have registered for the blind-dating activities organized by the city of Seongnam this year despite receiving negative feedback.
The mayor of Seongnam, Shin Sang-jin, has remarked that the city's blind-dating events are only one of several initiatives his city has launched to reverse the declining birth rates.
