3 - Ageing and Ageing Policies in the Republic of Korea

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In the field of Korean sociology, little attention has been paid to ageing and the problems of older persons. By 1995 only three of the many articles published in the Korean Journal of sociology were on ageing, and only a few members of the Korean Sociological Association were also members of the Korean Gerontological Society or the Population Association of Korea. The reason for this dismal situation was that ageing was not a serious social problem and therefore it did not receive much attention from the academic world and society in general.

In recent years, however, as Korea has become an ageing society, increasing attention has been paid to the problem of ageing by academics and policy makers. More scholars are now engaged in research on the problems of ageing in related fields such as demography, sociology, social welfare, economics, and public health. The government has also expanded organization support for ageing policies in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and increased the budget to deal with the problems of ageing. Newspapers and television stations are also paying more attention to the problems of an ageing society. As a result, the ageing problem is becoming a matter of great public concern.

Despite these efforts and favourable changes, a lot of problems still exist in this field. The government budget towards solving the problems of older persons is still limited, and the manpower allocated is not enough to solve the problems. There are still considerable gaps between the results of research and government policies. This chapter will focus on identifying the basic characteristics of older persons and their needs, and then examining whether the government's ageing policies are specific enough to meet the different needs of the various subgroups of older persons.

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS OF AGEING

While there are various ways to measure the degree of ageing, the proportion of the elderly population and the ageing index are the most common methods. Generally people aged 60 and above or people aged 65 and above are regarded as older persons. In this paper, older persons refer to those aged 65 years and above.