Plan 75

Set in a not-too-distant future, Plan 75 imagines a Japan where the government has introduced a ‘voluntary euthanasia’ scheme in a bid to combat the challenges posed by an ageing population. Anyone aged 75 or older can apply, and they are given a financial grant for a final extravagant meal or trip before their last day. Michi is an older woman actively considering applying for Plan 75 due to the economic uncertainty of forced retirement. Hiromu is a Plan 75 ‘salesperson’ who faces a dilemma when his own uncle applies for the scheme. Maria, meanwhile, is a Filipino nurse and migrant to Japan who has found work cleaning up at the facility where Plan 75 is carried out.

In her first feature, Chie Hayakawa builds on her own short from the anthology film Ten Years Japan (JFF 2019). Plan 75 is a film that – through its sci-fi-tinged central conceit – deftly explores the dangers of neglecting a society’s senior citizens. For all its prescient thematic concerns, however, this is also a compassionate, grounded film that elegantly develops the characters at the story’s centre.