【正文】 kers of state enterprises, and members of armed forces. As Jackson has noted, most countries in Asia continue to rely heavily on informal family works to support the elderly. Indeed, the family is considered the ―expected‖ and most appropriate provider of care. However, many questions have been raised about the sustainability of this model of care and various articles in this volume. In China, for example, the deliberate government policy limiting couples to one child, particularly in the urban areas, is causing its leaders to worry that in the future many children will eventually have to support two aged parents and four grandparents, or what is monly known as the ―1–2–4 problem‖ .Elsewhere, including in traditional Confucianist societies such as Korea and Taiwan, more elderly are living on their own. According to Mason, ―in Korea, only 8% of women surveyed in 1997 said they wanted to live with their children in old age, while 70% did not want to. In Taipei, China, the proportion of 60yearolds living with their adult children has declined substantially and the elderly are much slower than they used to be in moving in with their children as they age.‖ Surveys in Korea and Japan show an increasing proportion of middleaged who did not expect or even want to live with their children. Elderly who are single, who form a growing proportion of the population, may not have any children on whom to depend. Globalization is likely to have an impact on the family in a number of ways. The new global division of labor and ease of mobility increases the likelihood of younger generations migrating elsewhere in search of better job opportunities. Job losses and uncertainty associated with shorter, sharper business cycles are likely to affect fertility decisions as well as the willingness and ability of the younger adult generation to provide for the old. In some Asian countries as well, health epidemics such as HIV/AIDS have taken their toll on the middle generation. Opportunities It is not the intention here to be alarmist or to paint a gloom and doom picture of the future of Asia. As has been noted elsewhere, population aging is after all the result of human development and public health success. Indeed, there are many testaments to the successful development of the AsiaPacific region, as Mason has noted. These include the rising school enrollment and literacy among both men and women, raising the productivity of workers. These have important implications for the future wellbeing of Asia’s elderly. Being better educated, future aged are likely to have held better paying jobs and be better prepared financially for their retirement. They are also likely to be fitter, having been benefi