| On Monday, 27th and Tuesday, 28th of March 2006, the Chiba University 21st Century COE programme: the Research Centre on Public Affairs for Sustainable Welfare Society (ReCPA) is organising a two-day conference entitled “Human Welfare and Social Policy under Social Justice, Equity and Democratic based Relationships: Asian Challenges for Establishing Sustainable Welfare Society” co-operated with the European Foundation on Social Quality (EFSQ). This conference will open the debate in order to contribute to the development of ‘Sustainable Welfare Society’ in Asia. Asian states should respect cultural diversities and cross-cultural understanding. This supposes specific public policies for creating social justice, equity and democratic based relationships, which implicates the strengthening of human welfare. The conference’s motive is that the enlarged FTA zones in Asia may be characterised with considerable international population mobility and an emergence of new social actors and organisations in their regions. This conference may be seen as the first Asian event for debating the nature of public policies with which to contribute to ‘Sustainable Welfare Society’ and its regional co-operation. Therefore, this conference should deliver the starting points for comparative research on welfare states in Asia, as well as in Europe. |