This session could be seen as the regional discussion of ISME Policy Commission in Asia. One of the missions in this commission is ‘to examine and explore issues concerning cultural, education and media policy development and implementation'. As a result, we have invited present and past commissioners, participants, as well as other researcher from various Asian regions to discuss the issue we have encounters pertaining to culture and policy in music education. In addition, other researchers who are interested in this issue are all welcome to join our discussion and commission. European music's autonomy and hegemony has been believed and taken for granted for at least a century, and this tradition based on Western aesthetics has exerted a great influence on music education in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. However, Asian music traditions differed fundamentally from the music tradition of the West. The European concept of tonality or key functions, for example, was absent from those Asian sound cultures. In this discussion, questions are asked about: 1. Introductions of Euro-American Music into Asian countries. 2. How traditional and folk music in Asia survives. 3. How music educators in Asia should deal with this duplicity. 4. How music educators in Asian develop music education policies for the future. Korea: (Korean traditional music has its name called “gugak,” which literally means ‘national music' but has been relative concept of ‘western music.') Compared to popularity of K-pop music, the number of listeners of gugak has been absurdly small. Music educators suggest that having students experience gugak in school education is the key for traditional music to survive and insist to raise the percentage of covering gugak in statutory curriculum. Although music teachers who are used to western music have difficulty to teach gugak, but the difference between western/ gugak has been the facilitation to broaden the concept of music and enrich the understanding
