South Korea is an outlier even among wealthy countries. They have an extreme work culture (beginning from school in the early stages) that takes a toll on people .

On one hand, we can say this work ethic/culture enabled them to go from third world to first in less than a century. But stretch it too much and the country suffers population collapse.

I wonder if being bordered by a rabid enemy (North Korea) also plays a role in the low birth rates. Maybe people don’t want to give birth to kids that might end up fighting war in the long run.