Introduction by சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா Sinthujan Varatharajah

The birth rate in Japan is rapidly falling yet people are living longer and longer. This ageing society and the strain it places on the social welfare system threatens to overturn the social contract. Following a series of fatal attacks on the elderly, the Japanese government decides to introduce Plan 75. Under this plan, people aged 75 and over will be offered the opportunity to be euthanised by the government in return for financial compensation, a measure intended to help restore social peace.

In the socio-critical film Plan 75, director Chie Hayakawa confronts an ethical dilemma that may soon be more than mere fiction. The film tells the story of the consequences of a political decision for society as a whole from the perspectives of various actors, including patients and employees of Plan 75. In doing so, Hayakawa sensitively draws our attention to the infinite abysses of late capitalist society. What kind of future do old people have? Does dignity only apply to the young? (SV)

சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா Sinthujan Varatharajah is an essayist and political geographer based in Berlin. Her*his work deals with the issues of statelessness and displacement from a spatial, logistical and materialist perspective. வரதராஜா co-founded the event series "dissolving territories - kulturgeografien eines neuen eelam" in 2018, which takes an aesthetic and political approach to the everyday consequences of statelessness. In 2020, she*he was part of the 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art with the exhibition "wie man* eine arche bewegt". Together with Moshtari Hilal, வரதராஜா published the discourse book "Englisch in Berlin" with Wirklichkeit Books Verlag in 2022, which deals with questions of language and political exclusion in the city of Berlin. வரதராஜா first book, 'an alle orte, die hinter uns liegen', which deals with colonial techniques of violence, was published by Hanser Verlag in autumn 2022.