Cho Eun-hee: Youth culture pass meant to support basic arts now pays for blockbuster tickets with taxpayers’ money

South Korea’s Youth Culture and Arts Pass is expanding sharply, but its spending pattern has moved far from the basic arts market the program was created to support, opposition lawmaker Cho Eun-hee says.

The government plans to increase next year’s budget from 36.1 billion won to 792.5 billion won, a rise of roughly 22 times. Yet data submitted by the Arts Council Korea showed that nine out of every 10 pass transactions in the first half of this year paid for films or concerts. Of 387,811 total uses, movies accounted for 80% and concerts for 9.6%.

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It is difficult to tell whether the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has become a Ministry of Culture Coupons.

Spending also concentrated heavily on a small number of popular titles. The 30 works with the highest payment volumes accounted for 243,817 transactions, or 62.9% of the total. Three films, “The Man Who Lives with the King,” “Salmokji,” and “Gunches,” alone represented 143,357 transactions, about 37% of all uses.

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The program that promised to provide young people with new cultural and artistic experiences and grow the basic arts market has turned into a program that pays for blockbuster tickets with taxpayers’ money.

By contrast, use of basic arts such as classical music, dance, and traditional Korean music fell steadily. The share stood at 13.3% when the program launched in 2024, dropped to 9.0% in 2025, and reached just 1.36% in the first half of this year.

Cho, the People Power Party’s opposition floor leader on the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, questioned whether the scheme still serves its stated purpose. “It is difficult to tell whether the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has become a Ministry of Culture Coupons,” she said at a parliamentary meeting. She argued that a program intended to offer young people new cultural experiences and grow the basic arts market had instead become one that pays for blockbuster tickets with public money. Cho said the government must explain whether the policy creates new demand or protects the revenues of popular works, and promised to examine the spending plan during the parliamentary budget review.

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The government must answer whether this program is a policy that creates new demand for culture and the arts, or one that makes up the sales of blockbuster works.