Expanding Tuition Support is Sustainability: Low Fertility Rates and High Tuition Fees in Korea and Japan

Abstract

In Korea and Japan, fertility rates are very low and the population in the two countries is declining. The causes for low fertility rates are very complex. Under the environments, limited countermeasures can't solve the problem. In Korea and Japan, high tuition fees are one of the factors impacting low fertility rates and declining populations. There needs to be more attention paid to securing stable higher education budgets to alleviate burdensome tuition fees in Korea and Japan. Most of all, higher education policies in Korea and Japan for free higher education must be discussed from the perspective of making their societies sustainable.