SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's eastern Gangwon province will push for a four-day workweek that can be a great opportunity as it expands leisure time amid the lower population, the provincial government said Friday.
"The recently discussed four-day workweek will be a significant opportunity for the province," Governor Kim Jin-tae said earlier this week, announcing plans to study and prepare policies for the introduction of the shorter workweek.
Kim noted that the four-day workweek will lead to an expansion of leisure time, which can contribute to breaking free from the population decrease and stimulate the local real estate market through an influx of residents and a boom in vacation homes in the province.
The Asian country has struggled with the population decline, caused by the chronically low birth rate and the rapid population aging.
The country's total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, hit a record low of 0.70 in the third quarter of last year.
The total population was estimated to drop from the current 52 million to 38 million in 2070, according to Statistics Korea.
The governor added that the four-day workweek will become a societal norm in the end although it may take time to implement it. ■
