Globalization And Increasing Inequality In East Asia: The Case Of Japan And South Korea

The present chapter will illustrate the features of increasing inequality in Japan and South Korea in the context of globalization. Together with other societies in East Asia, these two societies share some common civilizational backgrounds and historical experiences in the modern era. But East Asia is a very broad geopolitical category including Northeast Asia (China, Japan, South and North Korea, Taiwan) and Southeast Asia (ten ASEAN countries). All these countries have developed diverse cultural and institutional traditions. There are at least three East Asian development models, among which Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan represent a specifi cally government-driven model as distinguished from other East Asian development models. Scholars have categorized parts of the region in different ways as well. In the discussions about the “East Asian welfare regime,” the term East Asia referred to various combinations of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and sometimes also Mainland China (Esping-Anderson 1996; Holliday 2000; Kwon 1997).