ABSTRACT
This chapter extracts and highlights the key similarities and differences between the two nations and analyses the implications of the recent policy reforms. The objective of the chapter is to examine how Japan's experience in addressing its retirement challenges, in the context of an ageing population, might provide lessons for Korea and also how Korea's experience may help shape Japanese policies. In 2013, Korea made reforms to retirement-age policy that will institutionalize age 60 as the national retirement age beginning in 2016. This reform emulates the 1994 Japanese amendment that boosted the mandatory retirement age in that country from 55 to 60. Like Japan, Korea is pressured by an ageing population and rising longevity, as well as high levels of income insecurity and poverty among older people. Like Japan, there is a gap between the age of mandatory retirement and age of eligibility for pensions.
