Signal Only the Seoul capital region kept growing in Korea after the high-growth era

Summary

Korea, like Japan, saw its population concentrate in large metropolitan areas during modernization and rapid economic growth. Before the high-growth period, the Seoul-centered capital region and the Busan-centered southeast had already become major urban areas along the Seoul-Busan axis. Industrialization then turned Daegu into a large city, and high growth made Incheon and Suwon in the capital region and Ulsan in the southeast into major cities. As in Japan, the only region that kept gaining population after the high-growth era ended was the Seoul-centered capital region. As rural regions shrank, both countries made sustained efforts to revitalize them, but without significant results. The report presents this pattern as the backdrop to today's deepening risk of local extinction.