ABSTRACT
Introduction Social welfare development in East Asia has attracted the attention of many international scholars in recent decades. Inspired by Esping-Andersen’s (1990) typological study of Western welfare states, the academic debates revolve around the issue of whether there is a distinctive East Asian welfare regime. Since then, East Asian social policy analysts have been concentrating on the comparative study of East Asian welfare states with the aim of finding a proper label for this regional group (for an overview, see Ku, 2007). Yet, while comparative research focuses on the overall picture of the East Asian welfare state, a systematic comparison of single policy areas such as ageing and pensions has thus far received relatively little attention.
