Demographic Change in High-Income East Asian Economies—Implications for Human Resource Management

The industrialized high-income economies of East Asia—Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—are some of the most rapidly aging in the world. We examine the changing demographics of these economies and analyze how organizations can best manage the transition to a workforce that is rapidly aging and beginning to shrink. We synthesize from different sources an overview of the aging situation, explain how it affects businesses, and provide cases of organizations that have implemented human resource policies to make their workplaces more inclusive and supportive of older employees. Government efforts to promote active aging, family-friendly regulations, higher birth rates, and create more open immigration policies to attract talent are also briefly discussed. We point out some steps that organizations can take to better integrate older workers and provide insights for managers and policy makers to deal with emerging issues.