South Korea: Where the government plays Cupid but singles refuse to be couples

SEOUL: The government is playing Cupid, but love and marriage are a tough sell in South Korea, reports the Wall Street Journal. Lee Eun-jin, a 31-year-old barista, is in no rush to convert from a single to a couple. In fact, her one abiding fear is that her parents will find out about the cash handouts and dating services that local governments are offering to reverse the falling birth rate.

“They will make me apply,” she says with a sigh — this single woman was not ready to fall in love and marry for the birth rate’s sake.

The authorities, however, continue to play Cupid despite holdouts against love and marriage like her.

State-sponsored dat­ing has spread across the land in a desperate bid to promote marriage and children, but there has been no reversing the slump in fer­til­ity, which has sunk to an aver­age of 0.75 chil­dren per woman. South Koreans are giving birth to only about a third of the children needed to keep the pop­u­la­tion level stable. It’s the country with the world’s lowest birth rate.

City gov­ern­ments have launched match­mak­ing ser­vices and other incent­ives to boost the birth rate. The national gov­ern­ment has increased par­ental leave and cash pay­-outs to new­ly­weds. Saha-gu, a dis­trict in South Korea’s second-largest city of Busan, offers singles who match around US$340 (S$460) to spend on dates at its events. Those who get mar­ried are awarded US$14,000, hous­ing sub­sidies, and more cash to cover preg­nancy-related expenses and inter­na­tional travel.

Churches and com­pan­ies also chip in. Booyoung Group, a con­struc­tion firm in Seoul, pays its employ­ees roughly US$75,000 each time they have a baby. Yoido Full Gos­pel Church, one of the world’s largest congregations, gives its mem­bers $1,380 for each child­birth.

Nevertheless, many South Koreans remain impervious to the attractions of marriage.

According to a recent survey, three out of five work­ing South Koreans think it’s OK not to marry. Rising living costs and the country’s notoriously long working hours deter many from starting a family.

Typically, men are more willing to take part in  gov­ern­ment dat­ing pro­grammes, but there is a shortage of women. Smal­ler counties have had to can­cel match­mak­ing events when not enough women applied.

The events have a heartbreakingly low success rate. About 4,000 singles participated in matchmaking events organised by some 42 districts between 2022 and last August, but only 24 couples got mar­ried, accord­ing to law­maker Lee Yeon-hee’s office.

Gov­ern­ment match­makers, nevertheless, determinedly go about their business.

Kim Seon-mi, who works at the dis­trict gov­ern­ment office in Daegu, South Korea’s fourth largest city, visits romantic loc­a­tions and dec­or­ates them with flowers and ban­ners every other month. She invites 10 hand­picked men and women from a pool of applic­ants and recruits a dat­ing coach to help them fall in love. Her team’s match­mak­ing pro­grammes have pro­duced 179 marriages in nine years.

Kim Min-ki, a 38-year-old teacher, met his wife over six years ago through an official match­making pro­gramme in Daegu. She was also a teacher, and by the end of the day, they were discussing how many babies they wanted to have. They were married within six months, and now, they have a son. The city offered a lakeside pub­lic park for the wed­ding cere­mony free of charge, but the couple booked a wed­ding hall./TISG

Featured image by Freepik (for illustration purposes only)