The aim of this paper is to present a new option for reforming China’s pension system. First, the problems of China’s current pension system are analyzed from the perspective of pension adequacy. The results suggest that the current system might not be able to protect people from poverty. To solve this problem, this paper proposes establishing a national basic social pension system and adjusting individual accounts accordingly. Next, the necessary pension contribution rates for the proposed system are determined. To test the fiscal sustainability of this new pension system, expected revenues and expenditures are simulated. This paper also estimates the pension replacement rate for individuals with different income levels under the proposed system and compares it with the current system to evaluate whether the proposed system could improve pension adequacy. Finally, problems to be considered in future work are briefly discussed. The conclusions of this paper are that the proposed national basic social pension system is feasible because it is financially sustainable in the long term, and it might substantially improve pension adequacy, especially for individuals with low income.

This paper examines a 2008 decision by Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruling unconstitutional Article 3 of Law No. 180 of 1952 on the abolition of non-charitable waqfs, commonly known as family waqfs. This law ended the well-known practice of family waqfs, that is, granting the right to use one’s property in perpetuity to one’s family members and their descendants, a practice that was widely popular in Egyptian society at the time. The law also modified the manner in which the erstwhile waqf property was divided among its beneficiaries, which had previously been dictated by Law No. 48 of 1946. Thus, the new law led to disputes over the distribution of old waqf property among family members because it related to shares of inheritances. Why was such a decision reached so many decades after the law was enacted, and what has its effect been? The first part of this paper consists of explanatory notes on the decision from three perspectives: (1) an examination of the form and composition of the decision; (2) the reconstitution of family disputes over family waqfs as a result of the decision; and (3) an investigation of the logic of the SCC judges regarding the unconstitutionality of this law. The second part of the paper presents a Japanese translation of the decision, which was originally written in Arabic, and gives Japanese readers an opportunity to review the discussions in this paper and provides insight into the Egyptian legal system.