The private sectors of Korea and Japan have launched an "initiative to overcome the population crisis" to respond jointly to low birth rates, aging and regional extinction. The theme of the first session of the Jeju Forum, which opened in Jeju on the 24th, was also "a joint response strategy for overcoming the Korea-Japan population crisis." At the session, the two countries laid out their policy experience in responding to regional extinction. The Korea Research Institute for Local Administration arranged the venue for Korea-Japan policy cooperation.
Population decline is hard to handle as the business of any single ministry. Fewer children, more elderly people and emptying villages move as one mass. That is why the framework for this discussion also took the form of placing low birth rates, aging and regional extinction together. Discussions related to the population decline countermeasures meeting have been announced for September.
Around the same time, in Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang Province, the same problem is being handled as a payment policy at the individual level. Cheongsong County has been selected as a site for the pilot project on agricultural and fishing village basic income. From this August through December 2027, it plans to pay 150,000 won per person each month in Cheongsong Love Currency to residents who pass an eligibility check. It is money in card form that can be used only within the region.
Agricultural and fishing village basic income is a policy that gives rural residents a set amount in local currency to counter population decline, aging and regional extinction. The county is examining a plan to add county funds and raise the payment amount, and is also looking into the zones where the currency can be used and how to manage participating merchants. The uses of the 150,000 won change depending on where it can be spent. This remains at the review stage.
The change showed up in the movement of people. Over the one week from June 11 to 17, the number of people moving into Cheongsong County was counted at 318. By town and township, there were 122 in Jinbo-myeon, 83 in Cheongsong-eup, 25 in Bunam-myeon, 25 in Hyeonseo-myeon, 23 in Andeok-myeon, 15 in Hyeondong-myeon, 13 in Juwangsan-myeon and 12 in Pacheon-myeon. In a region where population outflow had continued, more than 300 move-ins occurred within a week.
[Illustration: a cross-section composition in which solar panels are lined up among the fields of a rural village, and beneath them the share belonging to residents and the share to be repaid are shown divided | Caption: 85% of the installation cost is debt that residents must repay]
There is one more channel through which money flows to regions. The regional extinction response fund creates budget gaps of several billion won between local governments depending on their evaluation grade. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety stated in its evaluation guidelines for 2027 that it will give extra points to specific projects such as sunlight income villages. Since choosing which projects to run leads directly to evaluation scores, local governments find it hard to pass lightly over this condition.
A sunlight income village is a project in which a village installs solar power generation equipment and shares the profits. The government supports 85% of the installation cost with low-interest loans to draw participation, but this 85% is in the end debt that residents must repay. Land purchase costs are not eligible for subsidy, so villages must secure the land themselves. Under laws related to new and renewable energy, there are also constraints under which, if the share of government or local government support exceeds a certain level, RECs are not fully recognized or profits must be shared.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety recently sent each region review guidelines containing the option of covering this 15% self-payment in full with the regional extinction response fund or supporting the loan interest. It is a measure meant to ease the initial burden villages will shoulder. A design meant to let regions have a revenue source of their own, and how to handle the debt that design leaves behind, are placed together.
The discussions exchanged in Jeju, the 150,000 won in Cheongsong and the panels on village roofs all end up touching on the work of creating a reason for people to stay in that region. Japan walked this road a step ahead, and this was a week in which that experience crossed the border and landed on our desks. Cheongsong's payments begin in August, and discussions at the population decline countermeasures meeting have been announced for September. Whether the 122 people newly registered in Jinbo-myeon remain there until winter will be the first answer to this experiment.
