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Abstract In the last decade ,a new topical area of East Asia welfare studies has been formulated , which has significance to an enhanced understanding of the features of social policies of East Asian societies . In this research field , scholars intend to interpret the features of the welfare systems in East Asia from various perspectives . Notions including Confucian welfare cluster , East Asian welfare regime ,the productivist social policy model , are all explored with a purpose to revealing the causes of development of this welfare model from the cultural , economic and political perspectives .Nevertheless , so far , a number of key issues related to this topic remain unanswered ,and the extent of development in this research fieldis still limited .Obstacles of this development are of two kinds ,onecaused by the research objectives and the other by the research process .In the later case , the difficulties refer to the factors including the lack of an effective conceptual framework in support of such analysis , the ambiguousness in the direction of this development and the shortage of the useful data basis for the discussion , etc . To tackle these problems , the authors propose that conceptual debates should be avoided under current circumstances;research teams should be organized to reinforce the thematic studies;data should be collected in accordance with defined standards;and the regional cooperation should be promoted among scholars with shared interests to reach academic goals .
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Received: 20 January 2010
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