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Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Syndromic surveillance provides public health intelligence to aid in early warning and monitoring of public health impacts (e.g. seasonal influenza), or reassurance when an impact has not occurred. Using information collected during routine patient care, syndromic surveillance can be based on signs/symptoms/preliminary diagnoses. This approach makes syndromic surveillance much timelier than surveillance requiring laboratory confirmed diagnoses. The provision of healthcare services and patient access to them varies globally. However, emergency departments (EDs) exist worldwide, providing unscheduled urgent care to people in acute need. This provision of care makes ED syndromic surveillance (EDSyS) a potentially valuable tool for public health surveillance internationally. The objective of this study was to identify and describe the key characteristics of EDSyS systems that have been established and used globally.Methods: We systematically reviewed studies published in peer review journals and presented at International Society of Infectious Disease Surveillance conferences (up to and including 2017) to identify EDSyS systems which have been created and used for public health purposes. Search criteria developed to identify "emergency department" and "syndromic surveillance" were applied to NICE healthcare, Global Health and Scopus databases.Results: In total, 559 studies were identified as eligible for inclusion in the review, comprising 136 journal articles and 423 conference abstracts/papers. From these studies we identified 115 EDSyS systems in 15 different countries/territories across North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Systems ranged from local surveillance based on a single ED, to comprehensive national systems. National EDSyS systems were identified in 8 countries/territories: 2 reported inclusion of ≥85% of ED visits nationally (France and Taiwan).Conclusions: EDSyS provides a valuable tool for the identification and monitoring of trends in severe illness. Technological advances, particularly in the emergency care patient record, have enabled the evolution of EDSyS over time. EDSyS reporting has become closer to 'real-time', with automated, secure electronic extraction and analysis possible on a daily, or more frequent basis. The dissemination of methods employed and evidence of successful application to public health practice should be encouraged to support learning from best practice, enabling future improvement, harmonisation and collaboration between systems in future.Prospero Number: CRD42017069150 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of marriage and family therapy (MFT) has been established around the world. Inspired by theories and models developed in Western countries, professionals in East Asian countries over the last two decades have been dedicated to introducing the concepts of MFT to local mental health professionals. This paper presents an overview of the cultural background of East Asian cultures, a summary of MFT development in East Asia, and a discussion of key challenges to advancing MFT in East Asia. We provide recommendations to overcome these obstacles, including bridging the gap between MFTs in the West and East Asia, developing country‐specific MFT development plans, establishing accreditation and licensing regulation, increasing the public awareness of MFT, increasing collaboration among training institutes and the number of qualified MFT trainers and training locations, and developing culturally attuned MFT training and practices. Practitioner points: Direct application of Western approaches to the East Asian context can be detrimental if therapists do not carefully examine the cultural differences and adapt accordinglyA critical step in developing MFT in East Asia is to develop country/region‐specific plans including the recognition of the history, values, and distinctive features of Asian families [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rare diseases, also referred to as orphan diseases, are characterised by their low prevalence with majority of them are chronically debilitating and life threatening. Given the low prevalence and the widely dispersed but very small patient base for each disease, there may often be a disproportion in the availability of treatments and resources to manage patients, spur research and train experts. This is especially true in Southeast Asian countries that are currently in the process of implementing or revising their universal health coverage schemes. This paper aims to examine the status of rare disease management in Southeast Asian countries. It will serve as the basis for a more active discussion on how countries in the region can address an under-recognised rare disease burden and enhance national and regional capacities.Methods: The study consists of literature reviews and key stakeholders interviews in six focus countries, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand and five countries as best practice, comprising of France, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Rare disease management initiatives across each country were examined based on the World Health Organization's framework for action in strengthening health systems.Results: The results suggest rare disease management remains challenging across Southeast Asia, as many of the focus countries face fundamental issues from basic healthcare systems to funding. Nonetheless, there are substantial improvement opportunities, including leveraging best practices from around the world and organising a multi-stakeholder and regional approach and strategy.Conclusions: Southeast Asian countries have made significant progress in the management of rare disease, but there remain key areas for substantial development opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provide a comprehensive overview of the solidarity in health and long-term care sectors. • The overall direction of reforms is developing toward universal coverage. • Reforms might be possible without overall consensus on solidarity. • The pay-as-you-go financial arrangements will require strong intergenerational solidarity. • The capacity of informal caregiving of family could be considered. Different from the development of health sector, there are significant variations in the underpinnings and formation timings of solidarity-based long-term care (LTC) systems. This paper compares the historical developmental trajectories and identifies factors of the transitions of the actual practices of solidarity - the scope of community, the scope of interdependence, and the costs of joint action - in the health and LTC sectors in four East Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Comparative policy analysis. Healthcare tends to be considered a universal value such that its boundary should include all residents, while LTC is closer to an entitlement of citizens. The differing solidarity reflects path dependency as well as historical legacies and policy diffusion between the health and LTC sectors. In both health and LTC sectors, the costs involved in collective service provision are not distributed evenly between generations. Centralized governance is a prevailing feature of health and LTC sectors in East Asia, allowing solidarity-based institutional arrangements to be established without an overall sense of solidarity. The relationship between solidarity and health and LTC systems is complex and dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper views seeking the optimal balance between state strengths and the scope of state functions for 'good governance' as the formation of a homogenization-heterogenization matrix of policy initiatives in different social settings. Homogenization refers to a global tendency for institutional changes and governance framework to change state capacity, while heterogenization refers to the local adaptation of these global transformations. The paper attempts to take educational decentralization as an example of policy initiatives to assess and analyse the significance of the two opposite poses in four East Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) (Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan). The paper's position is that it may be useful to see these four NIEs as making up two clusters. It sees political democratic transitions in Korea and Taiwan as important local factors affecting the developments of educational decentralization in the two societies, while reforms in Hong Kong and Singapore seem to be more consequences of managerial and market values. However, the NIEs face the question of how to maintain sufficient 'stateness' in the decentralization process. To conclude, the paper considers that achieving the balance of 'stateness' is the key to success in state-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the role of public policy and the state in science and technology industries in Asia. The research is based on field studies undertaken at the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park (HSIP) in Taiwan. The state has been seen as crucial to the phenomenal economic success of capitalism and the business systems in Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan (Wade (1990) Governing the Market, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). On the other hand, entrepreneurship has been seen to flourish in countries where the state's role has been minor (in Hong Kong for example), and as concluded in the paper, the state has played a major role in nurturing entrepreneurship in Taiwan. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first, to better understand Taiwan's success and lessons for R&D management, and secondly, to raise the potential role of public policy for entrepreneurship and its close relationship with Asian business systems (Phan (2004) 'Entrepreneurship theory: possibilities and future directions', Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp.617-620). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Survey Research Data Archive (SRDA) is the largest data archive in Taiwan and in Asia. It collects not only survey data in social sciences but also raw data of major government statistics. These archived data have made significant contributions to research. Data and remote access service are provided without charge. In addition, an English website along with the English version of the data and their metadata will be available by mid-2013. To improve the search efficiency and promote itself among domestic researchers, SRDA began to launch a series of projects around June of 2011. These include the revision of abstracts, the construction of new search functions, and the compiling and circulating of a power point concerning the use of SRDA. This paper documents the endeavors, reports the current progress, and reflects on the experiences learned from the developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper addresses the public concern of hollowing-out effects of FDI by analyzing firm-specific data on Taiwanese manufacturing multinationals. We estimate ordered probit models with the firms’ own assessment of domestic production and employment effects as dependent variables to investigate whether such effects depend on the size, location, and type of FDI. We find that the probability of negative effects increases slightly with the size of FDI. Furthermore, the effects of locating in China differ from those of locating in advanced countries. In contrast to vertical and export-platform FDI, employment effects of horizontal FDI tend to be positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies grey forecast model to predict the number of foreign students coming from Asia, America, Europe, Oceania and other regions to Taiwan for higher education in the future. It also uses a viewpoint of service marketing to analyze the students' development in the future. The research outcomes can provide references of planning international alternating of higher education to higher education organizations and executive bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how Taiwanese overseas investment creates an ethnic Chinese skilled labor market in Asia. Low costs, no language barrier, and the cultural "lived Taiwan experience" are the benefits. Through three different channels--internal corporate transfer, social networks, and placement agencies--skilled labor from the People's Republic is mobilized to work overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four Asian economies – Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan – have grown at spectacular speeds adopting different strategies. Past debates focused on their growth takeoff. The present paper studies their future outlook. As an economy matures, sustaining economic performance requires innovation and technology upgrading. Hong Kong, under a minimalist administration, is now critically deficient in technology. Singapore, dependent on foreign multinationals, is struggling to become a creator and not just a user of technology. We seek to explain why Hong Kong and Singapore are so much less innovative than Korea and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The feasibility of using the SF-36 in non-Western cultures is important for researchers seeking to understand cultural influences upon health status perceptions. This paper reports on the performance of the Taiwan version of the SF-36, including the implications of cultural influences. Methods: A total of 1191 volunteered subjects from the general population answered the translated SF-36 Taiwan version, which was developed following IQOLA project protocols. Results: Results from tests of scaling assumptions and reliability generally were satisfactory. Convergent validity, as assessed by comparing the SF-36 to a mental health oriented inventory, was acceptable. Results of principal components analysis were similar to US results for many scales. However, differences were seen for the Vitality scale which was a stronger measure of mental health than physical health in Taiwan. Results are compared to those from other Asian studies and the U.S. Conclusion: The results raise important questions regarding cultural influences in international studies of health status assessment. Further research into the conceptualization and components of mental health in Asian countries is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces several papers about labor issues. Analysis of the changes in labor relations in Korea before and after the economic crisis in 1997 in Asia; Article which explores the issues surrounding malicious plant closures or Ershing Kuanchang in Taiwan between 1989 and 1994; Study of mineworkers in Zimbabwe.