ABSTRACT
South and East Asian countries have a “light” welfare state, characterized by low public spending on welfare (Jacobs 1998). Enterprises and families have traditionally played a major welfare role and have partially compensated for the low public spending. In some countries, such as Japan, enterprises have adopted a variety of flexibility measures to keep workers who are not necessarily profitable, while in all South and East Asian countries three-generation families substitute the public welfare system by pooling income between workers and economically inactive people. The absence of the welfare state is based on the common assumption that women are the main providers of personal care for children and the elderly at home.
