Ageing in the Asia-Pacific Region

This text focuses on the challenges that an ageing Asia-Pacific population poses to economies and societies in the region. It considers the policies that have evolved to date to meet new demands, and how these will operate in the future.
The Asia-Pacific region is now clearly witnessing the rapid ageing of many of its nations, to the extent that it will soon be the region with, relatively, the largest number of older persons. This book focuses on the challenges that this demographic trend poses to economies and societies in the region, and the policies that have evolved to date to meet new demands. It looks forward over the coming decades to consider how societies and economies will deal with ageing and the necessary structural and behavioural changes that this will entail. The book is organized into two main sections. The first introduces the key features, demography, research and long-term care issues of the region, and provides region-wide context and analysis. The second section offers in-depth case studies of 13 countries, including China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia. As well as providing original research material, the book also offers comparative analysis: while the larger economies have had to develop policies to maintain their social and economic successes in the face of demographic ageing, developing countries must find ways to build their economies around an ageing population. With contributors drawn from