麻豆社

Japan is one of the countries facing the biggest questions about how to give older people a decent quality of life without placing too great a burden on those still working and paying taxes. It has the world's second highest proportion of people aged 65 and over.

Plan 75 is a new Japanese film that confronts the issue in what critics say is a frighteningly-plausible work of fiction. It depicts a government-run euthanasia programme, which enables people aged over 75 to be killed by the state.

Newshour spoke to the film's director, Chie Hayakawa.

"We Japanese have a serious ageing population issue... but I wanted to raise a question in this film that the thing is not that simple. I think we need to have more imagination towards the socially weak people, including the elderly."

(Photo: Director Chie Hayakawa at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Credit: Getty Images)