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Busan begins shuttering its day care centers as birthrate struggles on

Published: 27 May. 2025, 07:00

A teacher looks over a day care center about to close on Feb. 23, 2023, after seeing too few children. [YONHAP]

Super-aging Korea's super-aging port city Busan is embracing its reality and turning its empty kindergartens into facilities for the larger community.

As the number of infants and toddlers in Busan rapidly declines, shuttered day care centers in the city are being repurposed into young entrepreneurship spaces and community facilities.

The Busan metropolitan government said Friday that 126 of the city’s 1,414 day care centers had closed last year. The closure rate has steadily risen, from 7.3 percent in 2020 to 8 percent in 2023 and 8.9 percent in 2024.

The situation is only expected to worsen. A report by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education projected that the number of children aged 0 to 6 in Busan will fall by 39.4 percent, from 127,571 in 2022 to 77,293 in 2028. The number of kindergartens and day care centers is forecast to drop from 1,941 to 1,185 during the same period — a 38.9 percent decrease, the highest among the country's 17 major cities and provinces.

Empty no more

Previously, closed centers often sat vacant due to the high cost of reinvestment for private operators and regulatory hurdles for facilities located in apartment complexes. But an amendment to the Multi-family Housing Management Act in April 2023 has made it easier to change the designation of day care facilities in apartments, prompting municipalities to repurpose the spaces creatively.

A notable example is the Busan Startup Dream Haeundae Youth center, which opened on Feb. 26 in Bansong 2-dong, Haeundae District, Busan.

A youth support center in Haeundae District, Busan, formerly Sena Day Care Center [HAEUNDAE-GU]

The center was formerly Sena Day Care Center, which shut down last year after enrollment plummeted from 129 children in 1996 when it opened to just 40 as of February of last year. The district government successfully applied for a public grant project supporting young adult housing and startup spaces in urban areas, receiving 900 million won ($651,000) from the city to renovate the facility. It now features a cafe on the first floor and co-working and residential spaces on the upper floors. Seven young entrepreneurs currently operate AI-related startups from the site.

“The cafe hosts intergenerational programs for local youth and seniors every quarter, adding vitality to the neighborhood and attracting more young people to Haeundae,” said Park Yeong-hee, who heads the district’s youth policy team.

A blank canvas

Some closed centers in permanent public rental apartment complexes are also being reused.

Because these apartments are owned by the Busan Metropolitan Corporation or Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) and managed by regional governments, administrative procedures for repurposing the buildings are more streamlined.

A former day care center in LH’s public rental apartments in Geumgok-dong, Buk District, completed its usage change process on May 20. One center will serve as an employment counseling and educational center for older adults. Another will become a residents' meeting room and welfare community center, while a third will provide language development programs and counseling for multicultural families.

A teacher looks over a day care center about to close on Feb. 23, 2023, after seeing too few children. [YONHAP]

A closed day care center in Dadae 4 District in Saha District has already been transformed into a community welfare facility. The city’s Childbirth and Childcare Division said it is currently considering converting four other centers into “our neighborhood ESG [environmental, social and governance] centers,” offering jobs for older adults.

Too much room for improvement

However, critics point out that most repurposed facilities have been public or national centers and that policies regarding private day care centers are lacking.

In fact, 90 percent of closed day care centers are privately run, according to Busan city council member Sung Chang-yong of the People Power Party.

A child plays in a park in Daegu on May 20. [NEWS1]

“The city’s reuse projects are limited to public and apartment-based centers,” he said. “Before constructing new facilities, the city should prioritize repurposing existing private centers.”

The city responded that purchasing and converting private centers with public funds remains difficult due to budget limitations and legal constraints.

“We will expand support for private centers transitioning to public operation and assist those preparing for closure with administrative support,” said a city official.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY LEE EUN-JI [[email protected]]