The Asia-Pacific Conference on Measuring Well-Being and Fostering the Progress of Societies was held in Tokyo on December 5 and 6, 2011.

The conference was held as one of a series of regional conferences for Asia-Pacific countries toward the World Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to be held in New Delhi, India in October 2012. The Economic and Social Research Institute of Japan (ESRI) was one of the joint organizers of the conference, in collaboration with OECD, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). It received government officials, representatives from statistics bureaus, academics and experts from more than ten countries.

The keynote speech was given by Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Commission Bhutan. He gave an overview of GNH and its application to national policy. Also in the conference, three working groups (Material Conditions, Sustainability and Future Challenges, Quality of Life and Societal Behaviour) discussed situations and various case studies in participants' countries.

Recently, we have witnessed a worldwide trend to measure well-being and social progress in ways that go beyond GDP. Asian-Pacific countries are also active, with various initiatives being conducted.

In the conference, some important well-being issues such as demographics and aging, gender, governance, and natural disasters, were identified as regional characteristics that affect people's well-being in the Asia-Pacific region.

The outcomes of the conference will be presented to the 4th World Forum, to be held in 2012.