{ "id": "epm2zgqw3k", "slug": "plan-75-plan-75", "title": "Plan 75 (PLAN 75)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2020s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.science-fiction-films-of-the-2020s", "label": "Science fiction films of the 2020s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.science-fiction-films-of-the-2020s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.science-fiction-films-of-the-2020s.alpha-m-to-x", "label": "Titles M to X", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.science-fiction-films-of-the-2020s.alpha-m-to-x" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Asia (other) · 2021 and later: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021", "label": "Asia (other) · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Plan 75 (PLAN 75, プラン75) is Chie Hayakawa's 2022 debut feature, a dystopian drama about a Japanese government program of voluntary euthanasia for people 75 and older; it won the Caméra d'Or Special Mention at Cannes 2022 and was Japan's 2023 Oscar entry.", "snippet": "Plan 75 (PLAN 75, プラン75) is Chie Hayakawa's 2022 debut feature, a dystopian drama about a Japanese government program of voluntary euthanasia for people 75 and older; it won the Caméra d'Or Special Mention at Cannes 2022 and was Japan's 2023 Oscar entry.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.science-fiction-films-of-the-2020s.alpha-m-to-x", "markdown": "# Plan 75 (PLAN 75)\n\n**Plan 75** (PLAN 75, プラン75) is a 2022 Japanese dystopian drama directed by Chie Hayakawa (早川千絵) in her feature debut, set in a near-future Japan where a government program offers citizens aged 75 and older the option of voluntary euthanasia as a remedy for a super-aged society[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/). It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and received the Caméra d'Or Special Mention[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/), and it was selected as Japan's entry for Best International Film at the 2023 Academy Awards[2](https://scienceandfilm.org/articles/director-interview-chie-hayakawas-plan-75/).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / screenplay | Chie Hayakawa, her feature debut[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/) |\n| Premiere | Un Certain Regard, 2022 Cannes Film Festival; Caméra d'Or Special Mention[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/) |\n| Premise | A government program gives people 75 and older the right to choose death, with euthanasia, cremation, and burial provided free of charge[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/) • [3](https://apjjf.org/2024/6/borovoy-davis-kitanaka-raymo) |\n| Main cast | Chieko Baisho (Michi), Hayato Isomura (Hiromu), Stefanie Arianne (Maria), Yuumi Kawai (Yoko), Taka Takao (Yukio)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/) |\n| Runtime / countries | 112 minutes; Japan, France, Philippines (some listings give 113 minutes)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/) • [4](https://ifi.ie/film/plan-75/) |\n| Origin | Expanded from Hayakawa's short in the 2018 anthology *Ten Years Japan*, executive produced by Hirokazu Kore-eda[4](https://ifi.ie/film/plan-75/) |\n| Awards in Japan | Excellence awards for lead actress and screenplay at the 46th Japan Academy Prize[5](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and story\n\nThe film imagines a Japan that has enacted a law called Plan 75, under which anyone aged 75 or older may sign up for state-funded clinical euthanasia[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850). The program is marketed with the slogan \"For our bright future!\" and framed as the freedom to die on one's own terms, while the government relies on a sense of self-sacrifice to fuel enrollment[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850). Enrollees receive a financial incentive that lets them pay for a final journey or a luxurious meal before dying in a clinic[7](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12762617/).\n\nThe story follows three loosely connected people. Michi (Chieko Baisho), a 78-year-old hotel cleaner who lives alone, loses her job and her housing and comes to see enrollment as her last resort[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850) • [8](https://nextbestpicture.com/plan-75/). Hiromu (Hayato Isomura) works as a Plan 75 recruiter at a municipal application desk and begins to question the program when his estranged uncle Yukio (Taka Takao) applies on his 75th birthday[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850) • [9](https://seventh-row.com/2022/05/23/cannes-review-chie-hayakawa-plan-75/). Maria (Stefanie Arianne), a Filipino migrant worker, leaves elder care for better-paid work disposing of the belongings of the euthanized, to pay for her daughter's medically necessary surgery[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850) • [9](https://seventh-row.com/2022/05/23/cannes-review-chie-hayakawa-plan-75/). Yuumi Kawai plays Yoko, a call-center worker who supports applicants in the period before their scheduled death and comes to doubt the system[5](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/).\n\nThe film's background includes hate crimes against the elderly by younger people who resent the cost of their care, and the program's existence pushes the old further to society's margins[6](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850) • [10](https://thetake-up.com/plan-75/). Critics noted that the film devotes much of its running time to the procedures, paperwork, and impersonal administration of the program, and that its world is built through understated details such as radio broadcasts announcing new edicts[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/plan-75/critic-reviews/) • [9](https://seventh-row.com/2022/05/23/cannes-review-chie-hayakawa-plan-75/).\n\n## Origins and development\n\nPlan 75 began as a short film in *Ten Years Japan* (2018), an anthology speculating on Japanese society a decade ahead, co-produced by [Hirokazu Kore-eda](https://www.edgepedia.org/hirokazu-kore-eda)[4](https://ifi.ie/film/plan-75/). Hayakawa rebuilt the story with a new cast for the feature[5](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/).\n\nHayakawa has said the idea came from her anger at social intolerance toward the socially weak, including the elderly, the disabled, and the poor, and at the spread of a \"self-responsibility\" discourse after she returned to Japan in 2008 following about ten years in New York[2](https://scienceandfilm.org/articles/director-interview-chie-hayakawas-plan-75/) • [12](https://www.cinra.net/article/202206-plan75_gtmnmcl). She has cited as a catalyst the 2016 killing rampage at a care facility for disabled people in [Sagamihara](https://www.edgepedia.org/sagamihara), which she read as the product of a society in which intolerance had become a dominant value[13](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2022/plan-75-through-hayakawa-chie-s-eyes/) • [14](https://www.moviecollection.jp/interview/151951/). While writing the feature during the COVID-19 pandemic, she debated whether to make a film that might deepen public anxiety, and decided instead to carry the story to a point of hope[12](https://www.cinra.net/article/202206-plan75_gtmnmcl). For research she interviewed about fifteen people in their seventies and eighties about how they would view the program if it existed; she recalled the recurring phrase \"I don't want to be a burden to anyone\"[12](https://www.cinra.net/article/202206-plan75_gtmnmcl).\n\n## Production and cast\n\nThe film was produced by Loaded Films (Tokyo) with secondary production from Urban Factory (France), Fusee Media (Philippines), and the Doha Film Institute (Qatar)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/). Hideho Urata shot the film, Rémi Boubal wrote the music, Anne Klotz edited, and Philippe Grivel handled sound[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/). Jason Gray collaborated on the screenplay[15](https://www.frameindependent.uk/index.php/reviews-and-articles/plan-75). The lead, Chieko Baisho, was a veteran performer known for playing Sakura across the *Tora-san* series; Hayakawa described her as a respectful and charismatic presence on set[5](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/) • [13](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2022/plan-75-through-hayakawa-chie-s-eyes/).\n\nHayakawa was born in Tokyo in 1976, studied photography at the [School of Visual Arts](https://www.edgepedia.org/school-of-visual-arts) in New York, and had her student short *Niagara* selected for the Cinéfondation at Cannes in 2014[16](https://www.mcjp.fr/ja/plan-75). Her next feature, *Renoir*, competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at Cannes in 2025[16](https://www.mcjp.fr/ja/plan-75).\n\n## Reception\n\nAt Cannes the film won the Caméra d'Or Special Mention for a first feature[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/). In Japan it received excellence awards for lead actress and screenplay at the 46th Japan Academy Prize[5](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/), and it ran in Japanese theaters as a long-run release that earned more than 330 million yen[17](https://nikkansan.net/wp-content/uploads/interview_Plan75_12-22.pdf). It was made available for streaming in the United States in late 2023[3](https://apjjf.org/2024/6/borovoy-davis-kitanaka-raymo).\n\nCritics generally responded favorably: Metacritic recorded a metascore of 70 based on 15 reviews, with 11 positive and 4 mixed[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/plan-75/critic-reviews/), and IMDb users gave it 6.6 out of 10[18](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19719904/ratings/). Reviewers singled out Baisho's performance and the film's restraint. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote that the film \"isn't for or against assisted suicide, but it tenderly laments a society in which 'death with dignity' is only offered as compensation for a life without it\"[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/plan-75/critic-reviews/). Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described Baisho's performance as turning Michi's small daily acts into \"a quiet act of resistance against her perceived uselessness\"[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/plan-75/critic-reviews/).\n\n## Themes and social context\n\nThe film is routinely read against Japan's actual demographics. The Japanese government's 2026 white paper on the aging society reports that people aged 65 and over make up 29.4 percent of the population, that those 75 and over number 21.27 million, or 17.3 percent of the total, and that by 2070 roughly one person in four is projected to be 75 or older[19](https://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2026/html/gaiyou/s1_1.html). A promotional note for the film observed that in 2025 one in five Japanese was said to be 75 or older, making the film's situation hard to dismiss as fantasy[20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ9XSJEBA0w).\n\nScholars have placed the film in several traditions. Commentators compare it to the 1970s dystopias *Soylent Green* and *Logan's Run*, which imagined societies eliminating the old, while noting that Plan 75 differs by depicting authoritarianism as an ordinary, bureaucratic everyday rather than a distant regime[21](https://www.lwlies.com/reviews/plan-75) • [15](https://www.frameindependent.uk/index.php/reviews-and-articles/plan-75). Japanese commentary has linked it to the Ubasuteyama legend of abandoning elderly relatives, as a modern variation reflecting older adults' fear of becoming a burden[22](https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/Choosing-to-Die-at-the-Age-of-75-Dystopian-Japanese-Drama). A study in *Screen* argued that the film distinguishes physical care from a care that recognizes personhood, since Michi and her friends need housing, money, and human connection more than medical attention[23](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/65/3/352/7762881). A cultural-gerontology analysis described the narrative as normalizing ageism by presenting voluntary death as a practical response to loneliness, poverty, and depression while relieving an economic crisis[7](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12762617/).\n\nHayakawa herself framed the film's aim as showing \"the beauty and dignity of human life\"[13](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2022/plan-75-through-hayakawa-chie-s-eyes/).\n\n## References\n\n1. [PLAN 75, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/plan-75/)\n2. [Director Interview: Chie Hayakawa's Plan 75, Sloan Science & Film](https://scienceandfilm.org/articles/director-interview-chie-hayakawas-plan-75/)\n3. [Plan 75: Hayakawa Chie's Dark Visual Articulation of the Crisis of Japan's Aging Society, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus](https://apjjf.org/2024/6/borovoy-davis-kitanaka-raymo)\n4. [PLAN 75, Irish Film Institute](https://ifi.ie/film/plan-75/)\n5. [映画『PLAN 75』公式サイト](https://happinet-phantom.com/plan75/)\n6. [Plan 75, The Japan Society](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=850)\n7. [The Cost of Loneliness: Ageism and the Politics of Assisted Dying in Chie Hayakawa's Plan 75, PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12762617/)\n8. [PLAN 75, Next Best Picture](https://nextbestpicture.com/plan-75/)\n9. [Cannes Review: Chie Hayakawa's Plan 75, Seventh Row](https://seventh-row.com/2022/05/23/cannes-review-chie-hayakawa-plan-75/)\n10. [Plan 75, The Take-Up](https://thetake-up.com/plan-75/)\n11. [Plan 75 critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/plan-75/critic-reviews/)\n12. [カンヌ特別表彰、『PLAN 75』が描く「不寛容な社会」とは, CINRA](https://www.cinra.net/article/202206-plan75_gtmnmcl)\n13. [Plan 75: through Hayakawa Chie's eyes, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2022/plan-75-through-hayakawa-chie-s-eyes/)\n14. [『PLAN 75』早川千絵監督×倍賞千恵子インタビュームビコレ | 映画・エンタメ情報サイト](https://www.moviecollection.jp/interview/151951/)\n15. [Plan 75, Frame Independent](https://www.frameindependent.uk/index.php/reviews-and-articles/plan-75)\n16. [PLAN 75, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris](https://www.mcjp.fr/ja/plan-75)\n17. [インタビュー Plan75, Nikkan San](https://nikkansan.net/wp-content/uploads/interview_Plan75_12-22.pdf)\n18. [Plan 75 (2022) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19719904/ratings/)\n19. [令和8年版高齢社会白書（概要版）, 内閣府](https://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2026/html/gaiyou/s1_1.html)\n20. [映画『PLAN 75』30秒予告編, YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ9XSJEBA0w)\n21. [Plan 75, Little White Lies](https://www.lwlies.com/reviews/plan-75)\n22. [Choosing to Die at the Age of 75, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing](https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/Choosing-to-Die-at-the-Age-of-75-Dystopian-Japanese-Drama)\n23. [Ageing, personhood and care in Chie Hayakawa's Plan 75 (2022), Screen](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/65/3/352/7762881)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2020s › Science fiction films of the 2020s › Titles M to X*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Plan 75 (PLAN 75)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Plan 75 (PLAN 75)](https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75](https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Plan 75 (PLAN 75)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/plan-75-plan-75. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Plan 75 is Chie Hayakawa's 2022 debut feature, a dystopian drama about a Japanese government program of voluntary euthanasia for people 75 and older; it won the Caméra d'Or Special Mention at Cannes 2022 and was Japan's 2023 Oscar entry." }