This article examines three comparative perspectives on East Asian welfare systems with special reference to Japan and Korea. First, an expenditure approach shows that the levels of government spending in Japan and Korea are lower than in UK and Sweden, but it necessarily underestimates the welfare expenditure publicly spent in Japan and Korea, due to the regulator type of policy intervention in financing welfare programmes. Second, the standard analysis of cross-sectional redistribution shows that social and fiscal policies have made only a small impact on income distribution, but the profiles of policy intervention reveal the distinctive characteristics of social security systems in these two countries. Lastly, this article examines the welfare systems in Japan and Korea in the light of Esping-Andersen's conservative welfare regime type. It argues that the welfare systems in these two countries do not fit into the type of the conservative welfare state and suggests that there is a case for an ‘East Asian welfare model’, at least regarding Japan and Korea.