A KBS programme, and a book with the same name

The notes are a reading of Myeonggyeon Manri, both a well-liked KBS current-affairs programme and a book that shares the name. The phrase, they write, means a keen insight that sees clearly what lies ahead. The programme, on this account, is good at guiding a viewer a little way into fields beyond everyday life. The book aims to read clues already visible in the present — recent trends, cases, and data — and to look for a sound conclusion, and other possibilities, about the future people will meet.

The speed of change in the twenty-first century, they write, is hard to predict. The world’s great topic, as they put it, is what will feed the future. A parent of two, the writer is often at a loss as to what work the children should prepare for, and how they should study; telling them only to read hard is not enough, when the future itself is hard to see.

Japan, as the book sets the case out

The book, they write, shares cases from Japan, Germany and Italy, to show how far a country can be shaken when the young disappear. Japan, on this account, met a sudden population cliff, and its growth stalled in a slump that had already lasted more than twenty years. Astronomical sums went into public infrastructure; government debt, as the book then put the figures, rose from 60 percent of GDP in 1990 to 127 percent in 2014. The economy, they write, did not revive; it sank deeper. The writer is left asking what would have happened had that money gone to the young and to education instead.

In the 2009 general election, they add, the Democratic Party of Japan made a child allowance with no income cap a core pledge, among other policies for the next generation. Young people who had found it hard even to start a household welcomed that, and a change of government followed. After taking office, the Hatoyama cabinet sharply revised the pledge, citing a lack of funds, and the side effects, the notes say, were large.

Germany, and what the writer is left asking

In Germany, they write, universities were free. An attempt, at one point, to charge tuition of 700,000 won met resistance from the young. Older generations did not ignore that voice, and the plan to make university education paid-for fell through. The notes leave the book there, before a later recap, with the writer still asking whether present rules can keep up with a change that fast. The same Korean report, in a longer form, sits on CampusDown.

Sources

1. The notes, a student reading of Myeonggyeon Manri, a KBS programme and a book about clues toward the future.

Last updated: 15 November 2026