A Comparative Study on China, Japan, and South Korea's Declining Birthrate and Aging Policies: An Analysis of Path Differences, Effect Evaluation, and Regional Collaboration_Vol. 2 No. 6 (JMSD 2025)_Journal of Management and Social Development (ISSN: 3005-5741)

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A Comparative Study on China, Japan, and South Korea's Declining Birthrate and Aging Policies: An Analysis of Path Differences, Effect Evaluation, and Regional Collaboration

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmsd.202512625

Author(s)

Jiangyiyun Chu

Affiliation(s)

Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

Abstract

East Asia is undergoing the fastest and largest demographic transformation in human history, and Japan, South Korea and China, as regional core economies, are facing all-round challenges brought about by the superposition of declining birthrate and aging. Based on the theory of population transformation and the theory of productivist welfare system, this paper constructs a systematic comparative analysis framework to deeply analyze the evolution path, internal logic and practical effects of the three countries' policies. The study reveals that Japan has formed a "high welfare-high burden" model with sound laws and covering the whole life cycle in the long-term response, but it is facing the bottleneck of fiscal sustainability and social mentality change. Driven by the crisis of ultra-low fertility, South Korea has embarked on the path of "radical reform" with compulsory institutional innovation as the core, with the strongest policy but the strongest deep-seated cultural resistance. China, on the other hand, has shown the "hybrid" characteristics of top-level design and local fragmented exploration due to its national conditions of "getting old before getting rich" and rapid policy shifts. This paper further demonstrates that policy effectiveness is not only determined by economic input, but is deeply constrained by structural factors such as fiscal sustainability, gender role norms, intergenerational fairness contradictions, and especially "policy-cultural fit". Based on this, this paper innovatively puts forward the strategic concept of building an "East Asian Population Governance Community", and systematically designs a "four-dimensional collaboration" regional collaboration framework covering policy coordination, technology sharing, capital integration and service interconnection, aiming to provide solid theoretical support and feasible policy options for solving the regional population dilemma and contributing to the "East Asian wisdom" of global population governance.

Keywords

Declining Birthrate and Aging Population; Population Policy; Comparative Research; Welfare System; Regional Collaboration; China, Japan, South Korea

References

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