One Hundred Years and Hope

Founded in 1922, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) is the country's oldest political party. With around 10 mandates in the House of Representatives, it is the harshest critic of the long-time ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Filmmaker Nishihara Takashi follows the younger members the JCP on the campaign trail as they seek to to motivate higher turnout and win over voters with their vision of a different and more equitable Japan.

One Hundred Years and Hope goes beyond party politics and opens a broader dialogue about Japan's deep-seated patriarchal and neoliberal values of ‘old men’ – ossans – opposed by the political left, determined to fight for political change by proposing and realising concrete, small acts promoting social and gender equity. The ambition of loosening the ruling LDP's more than fifty-year grip on power proves a slow and arduous uphill battle. Still, for each of the candidates, a new Japan seems possible.

Nishihara refuses to lament about the status quo. Through the stances, thoughts and tireless work of young politicians presented in One Hundred Years and Hope, he challenges it and debates a new vision of Japan interested in its citizens' living conditions and in fair and equal opportunities.

– Imogen Greenhalgh