Political economy of labour immigration in East Asia: Commonalities and varieties

This study is the first to document how older adults in East Asian and Western societies spend their time, across four key dimensions of daily life, by respondent’s gender and education level. To do this, we undertook a pioneering effort and harmonized cross-sectional time-use data from East Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) with data from the Multinational Time Use Study (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, United States; to which we refer as Western countries), collected between 2000 and 2015. Findings from bivariate and multivariate models suggest that daily time budgets of East Asian older adults are different from their counterparts in most Western countries. Specifically, gender gaps in domestic work, leisure, and sleep time were larger in East Asian contexts, than in Western countries. Gender gaps in paid work were larger in China compared to all other regions. Higher levels of educational attainment were associated with less paid work, more leisure, and less sleep time in East Asian countries, while in Western countries they were associated with more paid work, less domestic work, and less sleep. Interestingly, Italy and Spain, two Southern European welfare regimes, shared more similarities with East Asian countries than with other Western countries. We interpret and discuss the implications of these findings for population aging research, and welfare policies.

The Epidemiology of Hematologic Malignancies in East Asia from 1990 to 2021: Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study

Contesting Visions of East Asia's Regional Economic Order:A Chinese Perspective Xinquan Tu (bio) and Yue Lyu (bio) Despite being the biggest country in Asia, China only within the last century has developed a sense of itself as a regional country. Historically, China considered itself the center of the world. It was not until the early twentieth century, after Western powers overwhelmingly defeated the Qing Dynasty and forced the country to open its markets, that the Chinese people began to observe the world from the perspective of a country located in East Asia. Since the government's economic reforms and opening in the 1980s, China has become a significant destination for trade and investment and a key link in the regional production network. In 2010, China surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. This essay will provide a Chinese perspective on the contending U.S. and Chinese visions of the regional economic order in East Asia. The discussion is divided into four sections examining China's vision of the East Asian economic order, China's perception of the U.S. role in this order, the points of convergence and divergence between the Chinese and U.S. visions, and the impact of China's recent initiatives on the existing regional economic architecture. China's Vision of the East Asian Economic Order In the first three decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the relationship between China and its East Asian neighbors was difficult due to ideological differences. However, the rapid development of some of these ideological opponents became a mirror for China to reflect on its own backwardness and seclusion. Deng Xiaoping's visits to Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia in 1978 were considered a strong stimulus for his decision to reform and open up the Chinese economy. These neighbors set a good example for economic development, and China was eager to learn from and cooperate with them. China's opening was [End Page 26] also a great investment opportunity for these countries, in particular their overseas Chinese communities.1 Since then, diplomatic and economic relations between China and many East Asian countries have grown closer, and China has re-emerged as a major power in the region. However, it is not yet powerful enough to set up the regional architecture it prefers. In addition to the challenges China faces from the two incumbent powers, the United States and Japan, issues such as the South China Sea and North Korea complicate China's relations with the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) and South Korea, respectively.2 These tensions are causing China to rethink its strategy for regional integration. With no pressing need to build an East Asian community, China has chosen to lower its expectations and take a more pragmatic approach. At the same time, China has begun to look beyond East Asia and see itself not only as a regional power but also as a global actor. Beijing has attempted to establish frameworks beyond East Asia in order to bypass the constraints imposed by Japan and the United States. This has, in part, involved launching cooperative forums with other regions of the world. For example, China started the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in 2000, took the lead in establishing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with Russia and Central Asian states in 2001, and launched the China–Latin America Forum in 2014. Recently, most attention has been paid to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which President Xi Jinping proposed in 2013. Although the plans for this wide-ranging and ambitious initiative have not been fully disclosed, it is obvious that East Asia is only a part of China's global strategy. In East Asia, which is still very important for China in terms of trade and investment, Beijing's main approach has shifted from regionalism to bilateralism. Though the China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has stalled, China signed FTAs with South Korea, ASEAN, and Australia in 2015, indicating its pragmatic approach to regional integration in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific. In December 2015 the State Council released [End Page 27] the first official document regarding China...

The use of public resources and powers for particularistic purposes and interests serves as a useful (though not all encompassing) starting point for the definition of corruption.1 This definition ...

Purpose: The objective of this study was to compare Scopus journals published in East Asian countries—China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—in terms of their open access status and metrics and to explore the implications of those findings for South Korea.Methods: To conduct this study, we selected four East Asian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. We used journal information provided by SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) and Scopus. The following parameters were analyzed for journals published in East Asian countries: open access status, subject categories, quartiles, number of published documents, h-index, publishers, and citation rate.Results: In all East Asian countries, numerous commercial publishers publish journals. One exception is Science Press, a Chinese government-sponsored publisher, which published the largest number of journals in the East Asian region. Japan had the highest median number of years covered by SJR. However, the proportion of Q1 journals in Japan was the lowest of the East Asian countries. South Korea had the highest proportion of Q1 journals in the country’s total journal production. Publishers in South Korea published more open access journals than any other East Asian country. Despite publishing a high proportion of prestigious journals, South Korea lagged behind China and Japan in the number of Scopus-indexed journals.Conclusion: The findings indicate that South Korea has made significant progress in locally producing influential journals over the years. However, more efforts to publish international journals are required for South Korea to increase the number of Scopus journals.

Early Response to COVID-19

During the last two decades, economic studies on happiness have grown rapidly in particular, studies on the effect of income on happiness. Ng (Pac Econ Rev 7(1):51–63, 2002) has highlighted the East-Asian happiness gap. The East Asian countries, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, are performing well economically, however, performing poorly in happiness. Societal values have been suggested to be the potential explanation of this happiness gap. Nevertheless, the effects of societal values on happiness are yet to be explored fully. This paper aims to estimate the effect of income on happiness and examine the moderating effect of societal values in the context of the East-Asian happiness gap using the World Values Survey (WVS) data. The WVS (waves 6, 2010–2014) consists of nationally representative sample of 14,447 respondents from the various East and South Asian countries. It provides measurements of societal values, subjective well-being and other socio-demographic variables including income. We found that the effect of income on happiness is the lowest (and insignificant) in Thailand and Philippines; and the highest (and strongly significant) in South Korea and Taiwan. The effect of income becomes insignificant once it is moderated by the societal values. Societal values matter to explain the East-Asian happiness gap and might refute the relevance of Easterlin paradox.

The 'healthy migrant effect' (HME) hypothesis postulates that health selection has a positive effect on migrants' health outcomes, especially in the first years after migration. We examined the potential role of the HME by assessing the association between residence duration and disease occurrence. We performed a historical prospective cohort study. We included migrants who obtained residence permits in Denmark between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2010 (n = 114,331). Occurrence of severe conditions was identified through linkage to the Danish National Patient Register. Hazard Ratios (HRs) were modelled for disease incidence by residence duration since arrival (0-5 years; 0-10 years; 0-18 years) adjusting for age and sex. Compared with Danish-born individuals, refugees and family reunited immigrants had lower HRs of stroke and breast cancer within 5 years after arrival; however, HRs increased at longer follow-up. For example, HRs of stroke among refugees increased from 0.77 (95% CI: 0.66; 0.91) to 0.96 (95% CI: 0.88; 1.05). For ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and diabetes, refugees and family reunited migrants had higher HRs within 5 years after arrival, and most HRs had increased by end of follow-up. For example, HRs of IHD among family reunited migrants increased from 1.29 (95% CI: 1.17; 1.42) to 1.43 (95% CI: 1.39; 1.52). In contrast, HRs for TB and HIV/AIDS showed a consistent decrease over time. Our analyses of the effect of duration of residence on disease occurrence among migrants imply that, when explaining migrants' advantageous health outcomes, the ruling theory of the HME should be used with caution, and other explanatory models should be included.

In the last decade, negative attitudes towards the United States have increased throughout the world. Though the United States and East Asian countries have relatively had harmonious relationships, anti-Americanism is still prevalent for various reasons. In spite of China’s increasing economic interdependence with the United States, the country is succeeding to its long history of anti-Americanism. Although Japan and South Korea have been considered pro-United States allies since the Korean War (1950–1953), the countries’ younger generations have often expressed critical opinions of the United States. What is the cause of this anti-American sentiment in the East Asian countries? The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of anti-American sentiment in East Asian countries using a cross-national survey. The results of the empirical analyses support previous approaches and promote four theoretical concepts: (1) the people’s knowledge and curiosity about the United States is the most influential factor of anti-American sentiment for East Asian college students (the cognitive-orientation); (2) individual’s attitudes towards American culture and society influence anti-American sentiment in East Asian countries (the cultural-cleavage); (3) anti-American sentiment in East Asian countries is mostly affected by people’s general ideas about the roles of the United States in the world and United States’ foreign policies (the anti-hegemony); and (4) the people’s general perception on the relationship between their own countries and the United States is another determinant of anti-American sentiment in East Asian countries (the equal-relationship). In contrast, it explains that gender and the financial condition of East Asian college students are not significant determinants of anti-American sentiment.

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide. However, current evidence regarding the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of community intervention and health promotion programs for NCDs, specifically hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, in East and Southeast Asia has not yet been systematically reviewed. We systematically reviewed the literature from East and Southeast Asian countries to answer 2 clinical questions: (1) do health promotion programs for hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia reduce cardiovascular events and mortality; and (2) are these programs cost-effective?Methods and Results: Electronic literature searches were performed across Medline, Cochrane Library, and Ichushi using key words and relevant subject headings related to randomized controlled trials, comparative studies, quasi-experimental studies, or propensity score matching that met eligibility criteria that were defined for each question. In all, 3,389 records were identified, of which 12 full-text articles were reviewed. Three papers were from Japan, 7 were from China/Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and 2 were from South Korea. None were from Southeast Asia. Four papers examined the effect of community intervention or health promotion on the incidence of cardiovascular events or mortality. Eight studies examined the cost-effectiveness of interventions.Conclusions: The literature review revealed that community intervention and health promotion programs for the control of NCDs are a cost-effective means of reducing cardiovascular events and mortality in East Asian countries.

Like in many other countries, especially since the 1990s, the academy in the three major countries in East Asia – China, Japan and South Korea – has made various efforts to internationalize its activities so as to respond positively to challenges from economic globalization, marketization of higher education and increasing worldwide competition in higher education. Over the last decades, much research has been done on the internationalization of the academy from different perspectives focusing on different aspects, countries and regions (Welch, High Educ 34:323–345, 1997; Hoffman, J Stud Int Educ 13:347–364; Huang, J Stud Int Educ 13:143–158, 2009; Huang, The academic profession in East Asia: changes and realities. In: The changing academic profession in Asia: Contexts, realities and trends. RIHE International Seminar Reports, No.17. RIHE, Hiroshima, pp 113–131, 2011). However, except for very few works (Huang, The academic profession in Japan: major characteristics and new changes. In: Reports of changing academic profession project workshop on quality, relevance, and governance in the changing academia: International perspectives, COE Publication Series, vol. 20. RIHE, Hiroshima, pp 195–208, 2006; Huang, Challenges of internationalization of higher education and changes in the academic profession: a perspective from Japan. In: Kogan M, Teichler U (eds) Key challenges to the academic profession. UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge/International Centre for Higher Education Research, Paris/Kassel, pp 81–98, 2007), there has been little research on the internationalization of the academy in East Asia—in which China, Japan and Korea can be considered as typical examples— from the comparative and empirical perspectives, and there are even fewer accounts of the academic activities engaged by the academy in China, Japan and Korea from an international dimension based on national surveys with a common questionnaire. This chapter will address the following three research issues: (1) What are the distinct characteristics of the internationalization of the academy in China, Japan and Korea? (2) Is the internationalization of the academy in one country higher than another country? (3) What are the implication (s) for policy and institutions from the study of the internationalization of the academy in the three countries?

Comment on “Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization: Origin, Development, and Outlook”

Although most countries have submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), there is a lack of understanding what policies are effective in terms of carbon emission reduction under the announced pledges. We use East Asia as a case study to estimate the importance of national environmental policies in terms of reduction in fossil fuel carbon emissions (FFCO2). We show that the flagship policies of China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia in the 2010s were generally beneficial in terms of slowing down FFCO2 growth rates. When flagship polices were enacted, annual FFCO2 growth rate has either slowed down by 1% (South Korea), 5% (Mongolia), 8% (China) or even resulted in a decline (Japan) comparing to prior periods. We find that the 12th Five-Year Plan (12th FYP) of China had the strongest footprint in FFCO2 emission dynamics across East Asia in 2010s. The recent slowest rate of FFCO2 growth across East Asia (2011–2015) temporally corresponds to the 12th FYP. This regional pattern of FFCO2 dynamics is driven by decrements in annual growth of FFCO2, coal use and cement production of China (all ˜8% per yer decrease) during the 12th FYP. Using compound periodical growth of FFCO2 emissions, we provide two baseline projections of emission distribution in East Asia, by assuming that all policies are enacted (policy-on) or not (policy-off) in the future. The projections show that policies were beneficial since policy-on scenario results in 24%, 80%, 166% less FFCO2 emissions than in policy-off scenario in East Asia by 2020, 2025 and 2030 respectively. This progress is yet insufficient for reaching NDC goals by 2030. Even in policy-on scenario in 2030, East Asian countries would either experience insufficient decline of FFCO2 like Japan (-13% of FFCO2 comparing to pledged -17%) or increase of FFCO2 like South Korea (11%) and Mongolia (4%) comparing to 2010 level. For China, due to lack of economy-independent goals, we were unable to assess NDC target compliance. We demonstrate that China will remain as the major FFCO2 emitter of EA in near future in any projection. For China, the highest emission cluster will remain at the Eastern Provinces with the strongest power generation demand. These provinces would be responsible for 43% and 52% of FFCO2 emissions in East Asia in policy-off and policy-on scenarios. We concluded that the current efforts of national flagship environmental policies are beneficial but not sufficient for reaching ambitious carbon reduction goals like Paris Agreement. This study once again underlined the necessity in the supranational framework that may control the carbon abatement goals in East Asia. Without the supranational framework, achievements in carbon emission reductions are strongly hindered by the socioeconomic environment and the regional (or sectoral) emphasis of carbon reduction activities within a national economy.

Impact of Japan's Earthquake on East Asia's Production Network

The rapid economic development of the newly industrialized countries (NICs) in East Asia has attracted a great deal of attention from all over the world. The distinctive feature of the economic development of the Asian NICs is high dependency on international trade. Since domestic savings in underdeveloped countries may be short of total capital required for development, the utilization of foreign capital can be very important in facilitating and speeding up economic development. Using the most statistics available, the export of goods and non-factor services as a percentage of the gross domestic product was 37% in South Korea, 58% in Taiwan, 107% in Hong Kong and 176% in Singapore. The economic growth of the Asian NICs slowed down in 1985. Exports from other developing countries have gradually become their strong competitor in the international market. Because of the relationship between trade and growth, the rapid increase and structural change of exports will cause a change in the structure of production.