Suchergebnisse

Korean society is facing unprecedentedly higher population ageing, particularly in the first half of the 21st century. The implications of population ageing have a much wider effect than the welfare of the elderly. From a broader and long‐term perspective, understanding population ageing may require a new paradigm. Korea has attempted to model its policies for ageing society on those of advanced welfare states, but as these no longer seem viable, Korean policy‐makers are searching for more effective and efficient measures to deal with its rapid ageing population. Reflecting a broader and long‐term perspective, the Korean government recently produced a comprehensive national policy plan to deal with the consequences of rapid population ageing. This article outlines the phenomenon of population ageing in Korea and the recent development of national policies for population ageing, describing the Korean comprehensive national policy plan for responding to it and examining major issues and problems related to developing and implementing the plan. This article finally suggests a new, age‐integrated social system approach to an ageing society.

The Dokdo issue has constituted a popular area of academic enquiry in both Korea and Japan, but few studies have extended their research parameters beyond the question of who is the rightful owner of this island. Whatever the legal merits of competing claims to Dokdo, the Dokdo issue has expanded to represent an important political focus in the domestic affairs of both states, and it remains an omnipresent irritant in Korea-Japan relations. A full understanding of this complex issue cannot be gained simply through legal and historical argument. With the aim of overcoming these existing inadequacies in the academic coverage of Dokdo, this article attempts to identify the dynamics in which extralegal and extrahistorical factors have interacted and complicated this contentious issue.

When considered against the background of its economic and technological strength, Japan had maintained an anomalously moderate national intelligence capability throughout the Cold War period. However, Japan has been progressively getting out of this low-key stance in the area of national intelligence. This article argues that, among various international developments, the most obvious and immediate momentum for the improvement in Japan's national intelligence has come from a series of security events caused by North Korea, such as: the first and second nuclear crisis respectively in 1993-94 and 2002-present; the test-firing of the Nodong-1 ballistic missile in 1993 and the launching of the Taepodong-1 rocket in 1998; alleged spy ship incidents 1999 and 2001; and the long suspected North Korean kidnapping of Japanese citizen and Pyongyang's admission to it in 2002. The article goes on to answer the following questions: how has Japan's national intelligence responded and what efforts has Japan made to upgrade intelligence capability in the face of North Korea-related security concerns? And what are the next steps Japan could take for progressive improvement of intelligence capability? (Pac Rev/DÜI)

AbstractThe evidence‐based policymaking relies on the use and robustness of the available data. Many conceptual and operational difficulties restrict this process, not least in making use of evidence to identify policy priorities. The Active Ageing Index (AAI), developed originally for the 28 European Union countries, offers a strong motivation in this respect. This paper reports on the development of the AAI for Korea, a country where speed and level of population aging is among the highest in the world. Drawing on the comparative analysis of the AAI results for Korea, China, and European countries, we find that Korea's AAI (35.3) is higher than the average of the AAI for all EU countries (33.9) but lower than China (37.3). Fitting Korea into the overall ranking with the EU countries and China (ranked 7), Korea is ranked 11, just behind Germany (10). The AAI results in Korea show that the employment domain performs extremely well compared with the EU countries, but other domains, especially "Social participation" and "Independent, healthy and secure living," are achieving less favorable outcomes. High employment among the current cohorts of older workers in Korea can be attributed largely to the constraints of low pension income status.