Rising Social Risks : The Shadow of East Asian Miracle

In August 2012, Japanese households receiving the government assistance for poor persons accounted for 1,555,000 (2,131 thousand persons), or 3% of the total households, which increased by around three times from 586,000 households (898 thousand persons) in 1992. In contrast to Japan suffering a long time economic recession, East Asian countries such as China have enjoyed relative high economic growth even after the 2008 world-wide financial crisis. Nevertheless, East Asian countries have also experienced similar social risks to Japan, including natural disasters, political instability, widening income inequality, increasing unemployment of youth and rapid progress of ageing society. These increasing social risks make the people feel strong anxiety about the future. In my presentation, I hope to raise a question of economic growth without social development in East Asia in comparison to the cases of Mexico and France.