Lessons from East Asia

Abstract

This chapter is the second of two that respond to the third of our general questions about how housing assets, if systematically used, might perform as a pension. The specific objective is to identify and evaluate the lessons to be learned from international experience. A number of societies beyond Europe have long been reliant on home ownership as a supplement for, or even the basis of, pension income. Specifically, the focus here is on developed East Asian societies – Japan, Korea and Singapore – which have reached, or even surpassed, the economic status of some European societies. Whereas elements of their approach to welfare bear some similarity to that in Europe, there are also important differences of emphasis. They have been resistant to the building up of welfare states and citizenship rights, placing considerable emphasis on the responsibilities of the family. Supporting this, housing policy and advancing home ownership have played an important part in both the economic success of these countries and in supporting universal living standards. In some respects, then, they have been forerunners of property asset-based welfare approaches, the experience of which may inform European thinking about different welfare futures.