This chapter outlines the context of population ageing in the Asia-Pacific region and key issues and policies currently evident or likely to emerge over the coming decades. The field is maturing and gerontology is establishing itself in many of the countries of the region, supplementing the work of clinicians and biomedical scientists involved with older persons. The decade of the 1990s was a crucial period for research and the evolution of public policy in ageing in the Asia-Pacific region and the early years of the twentyfirst century promise to be yet more important.