Not sure about the extreme hours thing, since Europe is following the same trend while not having remotely as many hours at work as North-East Asia
https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/female-education-and-chil... https://rdcu.be/c7r33
There's also papers on extreme working hours having negative effects on fertility: https://www.aijssnet.com/journals/Vol_5_No_1_February_2016/4...
I don't find it surprising since extreme work hours --> worse health/social outcomes --> low fertility.
China and Japan has similar thing going on, but I'm sure there's way more nuance to this issue than my statement shows.
It could be, but the fertility rates are also going down significantly in Europe despite the fact that there's no extreme working hours there - so how much this is a significant factor is a question - if it is, it probably differs from one country to the next.
This reminded me of a post on Reddit that made its way there from someone’s Facebook - a rural couple had a pregnancy announcement that involved her dressing up like a cow and made some jokes about the breeding program. It went over about as well as you’d expect for Reddit - terribly. But all I could think about is how cool it would be to find a woman chill enough to go along with that.
I find it extremely frustrating how government (not just Korean ones) in general wants a scapegoat for its social ails. Never mind the fact that low birth rate is a consequence of higher education + extreme hours + bunch of other contributing factors.