Japanese visitors to South Korea often comment on the height of young South Koreans, as they seem to be taller than young Japanese. That young South Koreans are taller than young Japanese is accepted as a matter of fact by most South Koreans. This idea is deep-rooted, and recent studies prove it true -- examinations show that male South Korean students are about 3 cm taller than their Japanese counterparts. But personally I just can't seem to fall into step with this perception. On the contrary, in my mind Japanese are still taller than South Koreans. Why? My beliefs must be fixed in my heart because of my advanced age...Until the 1980s when my generation grew up...young South Koreans were indeed shorter than young Japanese. In 1970 we were about 1.9 cm shorter, and the difference grew to 2.3 cm in 1980. We remained shorter than the Japanese until the late 1980s. I can still remember hearing people who had visited Japan back then commenting on how tall the Japanese were. At the time, Japan was on a roll as the world's largest economic power. t was only in the 1990s that South Koreans started to overtake Japanese in physical stature. In 1993 South Koreans were 0.2 cm taller than Japanese on average, and that difference widened to 2.8 cm in 2005. But actually old Korean records and folklore claim that the Japanese were once shorter than we. In view of this, the phenomenon in the 1990s was not a reversal, but actually a re-reversal back to the former state indicated by our old records and folklore...It was abundance that woke up our once dormant growth genes. Once awakened, the growth genes allowed us to grow taller than the Japanese in just a few years. So what kind of environment will awaken that dormant gene that will allow South Korea to become an advanced nation? The answer is to establish a social order as advanced as Japan's, in which every citizen and every business can concentrate on their work without having to be afraid of anything...more...