From developmental regimes to post-developmental regimes: Business and pension reforms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

The role and power of business appear to have regained academic interest in welfare state literature under the influence of globalization in the western world. In East Asia, however, the literature on welfare regimes has paid fairly limited attention to business until now. It tends to be discussed within the relationship of the state as its subordinate rather than recognizing it as an independent actor, as seen in the literature on the developmental state. Globalization and democratization have unshackled business from the state; however, the influence of the independent sector within the developmental state discourse remains ambiguous. In this chapter, changes in the statebusiness relationship and also business influences on pension development in Japan, South Korea (hereafter Korea) and Taiwan will be analysed and discussed in the context of the shift from developmental regimes to postdevelopmental regimes.