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This study describes the characteristics of the Korean elderly. This study also investigates the population aging in conjunction with social and economic changes in Korea. Finally, this study explores social and economic implications with respect to the current and projected situation of the Korea elderly. Korean society has experienced very rapid changes both in demographic transition and population aging mainly due to the rapid processes of industrialization and urbanization, especially since 1960s. The rapid process of population aging has brought about the increase of dependency ratio, increasingly imbalanced sex ratio, and the decrease of the proportion of the elderly living with children. This paper concludes that the responsibility for the welfare of the elderly should shift from the family to the government.

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This study compares the sociodemographic changes and long-term health care needs of the elderly in Japan and South Korea. More specifically, this study deals with demographic transition, urbanization, population aging, changing family structure, and cross-cultural analysis of sociodemographic aspects of the elderly in Japan and South Korea. This study also examines activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and conditions of selected items of long-term health care needs of the elderly in Japan and South Korea. This study uses the data from the surveys done in Japan and South Korea, where the same sets of questions were employed at the same time in 1998. The sample size for the Japanese data is 1673 and that of Korean data is 568. A cross-sectional analysis of the Japanese and Korean frail elderly using the 1998 survey data indicates that the proportions of those who are able to do ADLs and IADLs are much greater among the Japanese elderly than the Korean elderly. The analysis also shows that the proportion of the frail elderly who lie down partly or always is much higher among Koreans than Japanese despite the fact that the mean age of Korean respondents is much lower than that of Japanese respondents. Comparing the long-term health care needs of the Japanese and Korean elderly, we may conclude that sociodemographic status of any individual country in conjunction with socioeconomic environment would significantly affect long-term health care needs of the elderly.

This study aims to explain similarity and difference in geographic proximity between elderly parents and their children in Korea and Japan. Using data sets from two nationally representative surveys conducted in Korea and Japan, this study examines the extent t o which needs and kinship of elderly parents and regional constraints influence intergenerational coresidence and nearness.Results highlight a complex feature of intergenerational relationship in Korea and Japan. Advanced economic and health conditions of Korean elderly parents increase the likelihood of living with children. For Japanese elderly parents, however, coresidence with children is significantly likely t o occur in response t o their disadvantaged economic status. These results suggest that the elderly Korean are more likely than the elderly Japanese t o lack not only economic and health resources but also opportunities in obtaining family support in a time of need.Characteristics of children, however, show a similar trend between the two societies. Both societies maintain a strong son preference for extended family living arrangement. Eldest children in both societies are more likely than their siblings to live with or near elderly parents. However, children of younger cohorts in both societies are significantly more likely than those of older cohorts t o maintain a disperse geographic network indicating a significant change in family attitude among different cohorts.Finally, this study finds a more disperse family network among rural elderly parents than urban elderly parents in both societies reflecting the fact that massive rural-to-urban migration of young population has contributed to geographic segregation of kinship in these societies.

This paper describes the internal differentiation within a low income community living on a garbage dump in Seoul. This includes the differences in work within the garbage dump in terms of work undertaken and income. Differences in level of education, expenditure and use of family labour are also explored, as are the different survival strategies adopted by households. The paper also considers why it is so difficult for the inhabitants to escape from poverty and the mechanisms which ensure that poverty is reproduced.