aging problem

• “Plan 75,” written and directed by Chie Hayakawa, unfolds in an alternate Japan in which citizens aged 75 and above are given the option — and are strongly encouraged — to be euthanized for free.
• An aging population is currently one of Japan’s most pressing social issues projected to get worse in the coming years.
• Hayakawa was inspired to work on the film after the Sagamihara stabbings of 2016, in which a 26-year-old man went on a stabbing spree at a care facility for the disabled, killing 19 and injuring 26 others.
• The emerging filmmaker said “Plan 75” appears friendly and pragmatic on the surface, but it is in fact “cruel and shameful.”

A Japanese film has reportedly devastated audiences at the Cannes Film Festival with its poetic imagining of a dystopian solution to Japan’s aging population.

“Plan 75,” written and directed by Chie Hayakawa, unfolds in an alternate Japan in which citizens aged 75 and above are given the option — and are strongly encouraged — to be euthanized for free.