South Korea plans to pay anti-social youths 650,000 won (£400) a month as part of a way to get them out of their houses.

Targeted at “hikikomori” – a term coined in Japan to describe severe social withdrawal, the scheme will focus on young people between the ages of 9 and 24.

Headed by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family the program is hoping to tackle the near 350,000 people between the ages of 19 and 39 in South Korea that are considered “lonely or isolated”.

The country is also trying to address its shrinking working-age population amid alarmingly low birthrates and tight immigration policies, with the asian nation set become one of the worlds most aged nations by 2044.

The government is “strengthening its support to enable reclusive youth to recover their daily lives and reintegrate into society,” the ministry said in a statement.

“This policy is fundamentally a welfare measure,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul.

“While it’s good to try various approaches to boost working age population, it cannot be seen as a long-term solution to fix the population problem here”.