Recover Edition Preface 5
Preface to the Korean Edition 8
Introduction: Time Waits for Us 11

Chapter 1: Knowing the Birth Rate Can Help You See the Future 29

A world ruled by women and babies | Indifference to sexual relations | The power of money moves the world | Can governments influence pregnancy and childbirth? | The biggest beneficiaries of China's one-child policy | Africa's baby boom | Africa's dual revolution | Silicon Savanna | Anxiety and anger about immigrants | Immigrants create jobs | Cognitive biases about immigrants | The truth about the brain drain | Birth rates, immigration, and opportunity

Chapter 2: A Generation More Important Than Millennials 71

Changing Perspectives on Generations | Millennials and the Silver Generation | Hidden Traits of the Elderly | Opportunities Found at the Top of the Population Pyramid | Rediscovering Old Age | Big Players in the Silver Market | The Silver Labor Market | Everyone Grows Old | What Generation Will Come Next? | China's Chaos | The Concept of Old Age is Changing

Chapter 3: The Birth of a New Middle Class 117

From Madame Bovary to The Simpsons | New Money, New Middle Class | The Unique Value of the iPhone | The Clash of Old and New Generations | Can the Planet Support More Middle Classes? | The Broken Ladder | Is a Rebound or a Turnaround Possible? | Ford, Amazon, and Basic Income | Middle-Class Anxiety

Chapter 4: Stronger, Wealthier Women 155

Women try their luck again, and men take another risk | We are all different, men and women | Women seize opportunities in the face of discrimination | Can we juggle housework and work? | Why women's life expectancy is decreasing | Glass ceiling or a barrier for men | Prejudice against female leaders | Will women rule the world in 2030?

Chapter 5: Cities at the Forefront of Change 195

Cities are hot in many ways | The lights and shadows of the city | People stuck at home and social media | Can nudges save cities and the planet? | The preciousness of water | Reinventing the wheel | The water-energy nexus | Farming in shipping containers | Cities coming back to life | LGBTQ+ and homeless | What will cities look like in 2030?

Chapter 6: The Present and Future Transformed by Science and Technology 233

The Rise and Fall of the Wristwatch | The Cambrian Explosion | Can Humans and Robots Become Friends? | The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence | No Need for the Paris Climate Agreement in a World with Everyone's 3D Printer | Fairer Insurance | Creating a Healthy and Happy Brain | Nanotechnology: The Solution to Climate Change | E-Books, Wine, and the Conditions of Innovation | Technological Development and Reinvention

Chapter 7: A World Without Ownership 275

A Return to Old Norms | The Power of Connection | The Gigger Economy | The Emergence of a New Class | The Dangers of Overwhelming Monopolies | The Tragedy of the Digital Commons | Don't Throw That Cabbage Away | Sharing, Collaboration, and the Future

Chapter 8: Too Many Currencies 315

There's no such thing as a free lunch | The dawn of cryptocurrency | Everything is traded | A match made in heaven in the age of cryptography | Say goodbye to unnecessary bureaucracy | The digital republic | What if every bullet was monitored? | Blockchain technology eradicates poverty | Saving the planet | The decline of lawyers and financiers | The future of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies

Outgoing Article: How Crisis Becomes Opportunity 349
Seeing the long way | Exploring various paths | A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step | Avoiding dead ends | Approaching uncertain situations with optimism | Not fearing adversity | Not losing the momentum

The World After COVID-19 369
Acknowledgements 374
Reference 376

“Why 2030?”
“It is a critical point.
“It is predicted that all these waves of change will coalesce and explode.”
The next 10 years will see a shift in the central axis and a reorganization of the world order.
What should we do in a completely new and unfamiliar situation?

Which country will lead the next revolution after the Fourth Industrial Revolution? How will the declining birth rate and aging population unfold, accelerating in tandem with COVID-19? What opportunities lie hidden between the millennial generation, born in the digital age, and the silver generation, the world's largest consumer group? How can rapidly growing cities overcome climate change and polarization? "The 2030 Axis Shift" reveals how the ongoing changes interact and create a new world.
Mauro Guillén, a world-renowned expert in global trends and international business strategy, predicts that the world will pass a critical tipping point in 2030, when major megatrends in demographic, social, economic, and technological areas will converge.

The familiar world is rapidly disappearing into a new and bewildering reality driven by new rules.
Without realizing it, in most countries the elderly will outnumber the young, and women will own more wealth than men.
Asia's middle-class market will be larger than the US and Europe combined.
We will also be surrounded by more industrial robots than factory workers, more computers than human brains, more sensors than human eyes, and more currencies than there are nations.
That's the world of 2030.
(Page 14)

Perhaps we have less than ten years left.
This is because the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world is amplifying and accelerating change.
If we fail to foresee how the impending shock and disruption will impact our lives and work, and where new wealth and power will flow, we could be left behind in an instant.
Drawing on scientific research and empirical case studies, this book vividly portrays the world ten years from now, highlighting key turning points. It reveals the risks and opportunities that will accompany this new beginning and offers strategies for navigating an uncertain future.

What changes are currently underway that will last and what will disappear?
Uncovering the fundamental forces shaping the future, across economics, geopolitics, and sociology!

▶'The center of the world economy is shifting from the Atlantic to Africa and India.'

For every newborn born in developed countries, nine are born in newly industrialized and developing countries such as China, India, and Africa.
If this trend continues, South Asia, including India, will have the largest population in the world by 2030, followed by Africa and East Asia.
Additionally, a dual revolution in agriculture and industry is taking place in Africa, driving economic growth.
Amid these changes, the emerging middle classes in China, India, and Africa are becoming the new benchmarks for the market as consumers, producers, and investors.

By 2030, the size of middle-class consumers in emerging markets will be more than five times that of the United States, Europe, and Japan, and will more than double from 2020 onward.
It won't be long before we see the exploits of the Wang family in China, the Sing family in India, or the Mwangi family in Africa, rather than the Simpsons.
(Omitted) Major products around the world will be made to reflect the aspirations of middle classes in developing countries, not the tastes of American consumers.
(Page 153)

▶'People over 60 enjoy the most productive and vibrant lives on Earth.'

Older generations are more likely to be early adopters of new technologies than millennials.
'Grandpa and Grandma Iron Man', equipped with mechanical exoskeletons, go to work with young people.
In my free time, I use virtual reality equipment to tour famous tourist attractions with my friends.
Due to the nature of their life cycle, they prefer to use subscription services instead of purchasing consumer goods, and earn extra income by renting out spare rooms or their own cars through sharing platforms.
As this trend intensifies as millennials enter retirement age in 2040, the traditional dichotomous thinking about generations and age will quickly disintegrate.

Contrary to popular belief, millennials are not a rapidly growing consumer group globally.
In fact, there is a separate generation whose consumption is increasing rapidly.
They now own at least half of the world's wealth, and in the United States, their share is more than 80 percent.
These are the generation over 60 years old.
(Page 74)

▶'Women are reborn as beings who influence the world.'

The era in which men owned and controlled most of the wealth and power is coming to an end, and more and more women are entering the economic, political, and social spheres and reaching top positions.
In Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, countries that break down existing discrimination and actively utilize the female workforce are growing rapidly.
As women become wealthier than men, asset markets will also be restructured according to their consumption and investment tendencies.
Entrepreneurs and politicians who fail to properly understand women's preferences and choices will lose their place.

“Women try their luck again, and men take risks again.” Our attitude toward risk influences most choices, including spending and saving.
It also influences the types of investments you consider most helpful in achieving your financial goals.
The claim that the 2008 financial crisis would not have occurred if there had been Lehman Sisters instead of Lehman Brothers is not far-fetched.
(Page 164)

▶'Billions of computers, sensors, and robots surround us.'

Nanotechnology and 3D printing offer solutions to the ecological crisis in urban areas, home to 60 percent of the world's population.
E-books are making a spectacular comeback and are being used to educate Africa's growing population.
Collaborative consumption and asset sharing via the Internet solve the problem of resource scarcity and give rise to new social classes.
Blockchain technology allows them to divide and trade everything they own, from tangible and intangible assets to jobs, in as many small pieces as they want.

It would be an exaggeration to compare today's transformations, from virtual reality to 3D printing, and from artificial intelligence to nanotechnology, to the Cambrian explosion.
But these new technologies offer hope for solving daunting problems ranging from poverty and disease to environmental destruction, climate change and social isolation.
It is also creating a new class of young, visionary entrepreneurs.
(Page 243)

▶'Finally, COVID-19 will bring the future forward.'

In a recession, people are postponing having children even further.
Companies and factories are accelerating the automation and intelligence of their production processes.
Quarantine life demands rapid adaptation to the digital environment and cutting-edge technologies.
Polarization in income, education, and health is deepening.
We may face future challenges sooner than we think.

We see all these new trends unfolding before our eyes every day, strengthening and adapting to the threat posed by the coronavirus.
Trends like declining birth rates, new dynamics between generations, and new technologies are being reinforced and accelerated by the pandemic.
We need to get back to the heart of the really important issue.
(Omitted) Because such changes and trends will become an irreversible trend over the remaining 10 years and will change our lives.
(Page 373)

“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
Seize new opportunities and wealth with a broad perspective that can read the flow of change!

Tata Motors, India's global automobile company, has launched the Tata Nano, a compact car priced at around 2 million won, targeting the country's emerging middle class.
This is because it was thought that as the economy developed and income levels rose, people would use cars instead of motorcycles.
But people turned away from the 'Tata Nano'.
“If I go out with friends or go to a nice place, I’d rather stay home if my car is a Tata Nano.” Young consumers were willing to take out loans to buy imported cars from Suzuki, Hyundai, Toyota, and others.
The Tata Nano failed because it failed to properly understand the aspirations of India's young middle class.
If, in addition to their higher incomes, they had also taken into account the fact that they value self-expression, are free from the frugal and pragmatic culture of their parents' generation, and aspire to the "Western middle-class life" they see on television and the internet, the results might have been different.

To welcome 2030, we must open our minds to countless new ideas.
It's naive to think that clinging to existing beliefs and behaviors will help us navigate the challenges of ever-increasing life expectancy, an aging population, and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Given the sheer number of factors that drive this world, "proven ideas" are actually "outdated ideas."
So, in an era where new technologies are constantly emerging, it's crucial to always embrace new perspectives on jobs, retirement, and the future.
(Page 355)

The future is revealed only to those who see further and bigger.
If we consider each of the ongoing changes separately, it is difficult to realize the potential hidden within them.
Even if we look beyond superficial generalizations to the millennial generation, which companies are most interested in today, we can discover various subgroups defined by income, education level, gender, and more.
By breaking free from fragmentary and schematic frameworks and striving to broadly understand the complex relationships within us, we can survive the new and unfamiliar world we face in ten years.
"The 2030 Axis Shift" offers a macroscopic perspective on this great transition, sharply examining the connections between nations, generations, classes, and technologies.

Population growth in Africa, immigration, automation, and cryptocurrencies are all impacting a large portion of the American population.
These are elements of development that seem risky, full of challenges and threats.
Of course, there may be a basis for this, but if you are blindly afraid, you may not be able to adapt properly to the new environment.
Cortés's case teaches us that we can overcome fear by looking further ahead.
The farther we get from land, the more we can move towards new horizons.
(Page 352)