Among the diverse changes our society is undergoing today, the rapid increase in the number of old population is producing many different types of social problems. Specifically, as the society transitions from an aging society into an aged society, job creation for the elderly has emerged as an important social issue. From the perspective of elderly individuals, job creation for the elderly provides opportunity for character development, self realization through work, and income‐generating labor that establishes the foundation for a life with dignity. From the perspective of the society, the elderly can maintain mental and physical health through participating in economic activities of the society and communicating with the younger generation, and enjoy their position as fully functioning members of the society through their labor. Job creation for the elderly, therefore, can become a foundation upon which many aspects of individual and social health can be secured.
Legislators can mobilize various means to create jobs for the elderly. There are significant parts of the mandatory retirement system currently stuck in the existing framework that can be improved and, going beyond merely creating jobs for corporations, employment in the public sector can also be created through various legislative efforts. At the same time, it cannot be denied that, due to the existence of socio structural and economic reasons that block an unlimited number of jobs from being created, there are difficulties in deriving any revolutionary plan in the midst of rapidly changing times.
Internationalization or globalization has become yet another challenge in our reality, in which early retirement has long ago become common place and the changes in the economic structure of which make the traditional mandatory retirement system difficult to maintain. The State has a primary mandate to fulfill its task of legislating policies that create jobs, but it is surrounded by many obstacles. Nevertheless, legislators have to make continuous efforts to bring about improvements in the mandatory retirement system, gradual reform of the pension system, cultivation of and support for social enterprise, and creation of various suitable jobs for the elderly.