The only thing connecting each tiny room at the Happiness Factory to the outside world is a feeding hole in the door.

If I wrote this in my novel I would be teased for being too corny, but to Occupied Korea this is just an average day.

I can't imagine how horrible it must be to be a shut-in and instead of anyone helping you materially they sell your parents a ticket to experience a superficial facsimile of your depression.

"In Korea, parents often express their love and feelings through practical actions and roles rather than verbal expressions,” Prof Jeong says.

“Parents financing their children's tuition fees through hard work is a typical example of a Confucian culture that emphasises responsibility."

Thank you sociology Prof Jeong Go-woon, see, this "loneliness" stuff is because Koreans are just a different race with a unique racial culture.

South Korea has some of the highest suicide rates in the world and last year, its government unveiled a five year plan aiming to address this.

Ministers announced there would be state-funded mental health check-ups for people aged 20-34 every two years.

Wow! 2.5 mental health checkups in 5 years! Why didn't I think of that?

In Japan, the first wave of young people isolating themselves, in the 1990s, has led to a demographic of middle-aged people dependent on their elderly parents.

More orientalism that is used in place of actual materialist analysis to subdue people. "Those dang Japanese and Good Koreans work too hard, it's in their blood"

The BBC should be beaten to death with a stick before it hurts more people.