I have taken Thailand and Japan as the prime case studies for this paper on pension reform and the future of pension security in the Asia and Pacific region. This paper will briefly highlight crucial parameters of the current state and the future development of public pension systems, particularly general demographic and social indicators, as well as more specifically indicators of the strength and development of pension systems. Then, I will go on to elaborate the four basic dimensions of social security and pension system reform, which has become a global phenomenon ever since the early 1990s. These are: (i) parametric reforms, (ii) steps toward privatization of the pension system, (iii) steps toward the individualization of the pension system, and (iv) fundamental alteration of the pension system itself. These four dimension of pension reform, in fact, constitute a road map to pension reform, which is able to depict and further explain pension reform efforts of the last two decades across the world and, more importantly, to predict future developments. Especially as the limits of parametric changes have been reached in many regards, more radical systemic changes may become obsolete and necessary to ensure the number one mandate of public pension systems, effective (and efficient) provision of adequate pensions for all . If pensions drop below a certain minimum, public pensions have lost their ultimate legitimacy that is to provide income “security” during old age.

In the following, brief case studies on pension systems in Thailand and Japan will provide further empirical evidence for the salience and usefulness of these four basic dimensions of pension system reform in particular, or social security reform in general. The paper concludes with a general recommendation of extending the contribution base for social security and pension systems, to include also other forms of income, and to here and there change existing systems, i.e. adding new components or system elements to the existing pension scheme or system.