KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

This study analysed the formational process of multicultural society in East Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore that have shared similar characteristics in their culture and society, and suggested the multicultural policy and its implementation systems correspondent to East Asian contexts.

For these purposes, this study analysed the historical backgrounds and the present conditions of multicultural society in East Asian countries, and introduced how such a multicultural policy can be applied to Korea.

Each characteristics of four countries is as follows; while the cooperation of local governments and NGOs(Non Governmental Organizations) is important in Japan, the central government and NGOs play a leading role in Taiwan and in Singapore, the central government has stronger initiatives than NGOs. And Korea is differentiated from other countries in that while central organizations have policy initiatives, local governments and NGOs play a subsidiary role. But some of NGOs supporting foreign workers have a considerable influence in the policy process.

Through the above-mentioned analyses, suggestions for strengthening the policy system are as follows; ① Building basic directions of the multicultural policy and Reshaping related laws, ② Building the control tower, ③ Transferring policy initiatives to local governments, ④ Strenghtening the role of NGOs.

Suggestions for strengthening the cooperative system are as follows; ① Strengthening the governance system among central/local governments and NGOs, ② Strengthening the cooperative system among central governments and organizations, ③ Strengthening the cooperative system among local governments, ④ Founding committees for the multicultural policy in each region, ⑤ Encouraging the cooperation between public sectors and private sectors.

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