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In recent years, what first comes to mind as the biggest problem in Korean society is the disparity problem known as “polarization.” Special attention is being devoted to issues of wage disparities, including the doubling of the wage gaps between large and small and medium-sized companies and between regular and non-regular employees, and of income disparities, which leads to poverty and a sense of deprivation for many working in low-wage and unstable employment conditions at small and medium-sized companies and with non-regular employment. Yet this is not the entirety of the situation. Serious disparities are widening in all aspects of people’s lives, including educational disparities, academic ability disparities, housing disparities, health disparities, and hope disparities that are concomitant with income disparities as well as generational and gender disparities that result from the other disparities. This volume discusses the background of the current state of Korean society, which may be termed “a developed country facing new challenges,” as well as what kind of systems and policies are being developed in response from the perspective of comparative welfare state studies.
 
From the standpoint of comparative welfare state studies, South Korea is regarded as a “latecomer welfare state” that embarked on becoming a welfare state later than developed countries such as Japan and European countries. In general, latecomers undergo transformation while receiving various influences from developed countries. Needless to say, this includes a catch-up tendency. Nevertheless, looking at the reality of South Korea as a latecomer welfare state, it is evident that it has not caught up with developed countries when it comes to developing systems and policies that can respond to a variety of social problems, such as the previously mentioned disparity problem, with there instead being clearly a trend of moving away from that and attempting new initiatives. Why is this? What are the new initiatives? and What is the meaning of those new initiatives? This volume clarifies the uniquely South Korean institutional and policy context of being a latecomer welfare state, whose experiences differ from the welfare states of developed countries, and examines the new initiatives being attempted in this context, what characterizes them, and what universal meaning they hold.
 
In comparative welfare state studies, South Korea and other Asian countries and regions are often negatively evaluated as “underdeveloped” or “immature” because they are thought to be lagging behind developed countries in becoming welfare states, developing and promoting insufficient systems and policies. By contrast, this volume is able to find crucial significance in distinguishing itself from conventional research by actively framing the development of systems and policies different from those of developed countries as “decatch-up initiatives” as well as elucidating their contents, characteristics, and meaning, using South Korea as a case study.
 
As a latecomer welfare state and a developed country facing new challenges, South Korea and its “decatch-up initiatives” will undoubtedly provide valuable hints for developing systems and policies not only in other Asian countries and regions but also in developed countries such as Japan and European countries. It is my hope that this volume will provide an opportunity for others to learn about the South Korean reality and to consider its implications for other countries and regions, including Japan.
 

(Written by Kim Sung Won, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2023)