Balancing Tradition and Modernity: The Future of Retirement in East Asia

July 12, 2012

As the world’s societies age, governments and businesses are trying to look ahead and anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s growing elderly populations.  Nowhere is this more difficult to do than in emerging East Asia, where economic modernization, changing cultural norms, and rapidly aging populations are transforming retirement behavior and expectations.  Balancing Tradition and Modernity: The Future of Retirement in East Asia explores the implications of rapid development and rapid aging for retirement policy and planning in the most economically important region of the emerging world.  The report is based on a survey of workers and retirees conducted by the CSIS Global Aging Initiative in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.  Supplemental data and other materials related to the report are available on the project website at gapindex.csis.org/asia.