Sanada-maru^*NEW*
Date: From 8.00 p.m., Sundays, January 2016
Station: NHK
Scriptwriter: Mitani Koki (Orient Kyuukou Satsujin Jiken, Sutekina Kakushidori, Wagaya no Rekishi)
Genre: Period
Cast: Sakai Masato, Oizumi Yo, Kimura Yoshino, Nagasawa Masami, Kuroki Haru, Kusakari Masao, Takahata Atsuko, Kusabue Mitsuko, Terajima Susumu, Nakahara Takeo, Fujii Takashi, Hira Takehiro, Danta Yasunori, Endo Kenichi, Yoshida Yo, Fujioka Hiroshi, Takashima Masanobu, Saito Yuki, Kondo Masaomi, Uchino Masaaki, Nishimura Masahiko, Fujimoto Takahiro
Synopsis: Sanada Nobushige (Sakai Masato), known in history as Sanada Yukimura, was born to a nominal lord of Shinshu (present day Nagano Prefecture). The Sanadas were at the mercy of the turbulent wars which the surrounding feudal lords waged. In his youth, Yukimura lived as a hostage of Uesugi Kagekatsu (Endo Kenichi) and then Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, Yukimura, who read both the period and its people accurately, would try hard to survive the Sengoku era with his family, including his father Masayuki (Kusakari Masao), and elder brother Nobuyuki (Oizumi Yo), through wisdom, courage and great effort. He was confined on Mt Koya for taking the side of the Western forces in the Battle of Sekigahara. During The Siege of Osaka, Yukimura built a fortification called Sanada-maru and bravely fought the much larger invading forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Uchino Masaaki) in a display of his outstanding leadership. He died in battle in the summer siege.
Website: –

Official Website
www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/zouki

Broadcast
From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 12 July 2015

Station
WOWOW

Story
Numazaki Kyota, a director of a company which produces television programmes, discovers a dead female body in Fuji’s Jukai. A forensic autopsy determines that she froze to death. However, it also turns out that one of her kidneys has been removed. Something weighs on the mind of the investigating detective Shirai Mamoru. On the other hand, Takakura Haruko, a patient at Hino Hospital, has been receiving dialysis. Her body is approaching its limits and her daughter, Hiromi, beseeches the attending physician, Hino Seiichiro, to transplant her own kidney to her mother. But Hino adamantly refuses. Meanwhile, an injured man and woman are taken to Kyuai Memorial Hospital. The hospital director, Ota Isamu, knows that a kidney transplant had been done between them from their respective surgery scars. Then he learns that the kidney was purchased with money and notifies the police. Hino, who was the surgeon, is asked by the police to come voluntarily for questioning. This news spurs Numazaki to make the decision to go on gathering materials on the connection between the dead body that he found in Jukai and the organ trade. He soon starts to get close to the darkness in medical treatment.

Characters
Koizumi Kotaro as Numazaki Kyota
A director of If Production, a television production company. He had been a reporter for a weekly magazine at a general publisher until about two years ago, but resigned after causing some trouble.

Toyohara Kosuke as Shirai Mamoru
A detective of Yamanashi Prefecture’s Fuji Narusawa Police Precinct. He provides information to Numazaki Kyota to the extent possible, but draws a line.

Konishi Manami as Amemiya Yukari
A director of If Production. Numazaki Kyota’s colleague and ex-girlfriend. She is also the Hino Seiichiro’s daughter and knows Numzaki’s past, but she asks him to check the truth of the case which he is following.

Ogi Shigemitsu as Ota Isamu
The hospital director of Kyuai Memorial Hospital and a surgeon. He plans to go into politics as the successor of the lawmaker Uehara Sousuke.

Shiba Toshio as Uehara Sousuke
A lawmaker of the House of Representatives and Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Takeda Tetsuya as Hino Seiichiro
The hospital director of Hino Hospital. He is found to have performed kidney transplant on a patient with kidney disease by excising and repairing a kidney from a cancer patient.

Scriptwriters
Takayama Naoya (Tokumei Tantei Series, Seinaru Kaibutsutachi)
Suzuki Satoshi (Tokusou, Doku Poison)

Original Work
Shi no Zouki by Asano Ryo

Click here for photos from the press conference.

Related Post:

• Shi no Zouki CM

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Seishun Tantei Haruya
Date: From 11.59 p.m., Thursdays, October 2015
Station: NTV
Scriptwriter: –
Original Work: End Credit ni Saitekina Natsu by Fukuda Eiichi
Genre: Mystery
Cast: Tamamori Yuta, Shinkawa Yua, Takada Sho
Synopsis: The smart and brave university student Asagi Haruya (Tamamori Yuta) starts to receive detective-like work through a strange turn of events, and solves difficult cases rampant nowadays with the assistance of his schoolmate, Kubodera Kazutomi (Takada Sho).
Website: www.ytv.co.jp/haruya

Umi ni Oriru^*UPDATED*
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Saturdays, October 2015
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriters: Tokunaga Yuichi (Tantei no Tantei, Keiji 110 kg Series, Umi no Ue no Shinryojo), Asano Atsuya (Kageri Yuku Natsu, Onna wa Sore o Yurusanai, Zainin no Uso)
Original Work: Umi ni Oriru by Akeno Kaeruko
Genre: Marine mystery
Cast: Arimura Kasumi, Inoue Yoshio
Synopsis: Amaya Miyuki (Arimura Kasumi) becomes the first female pilot of the Shinkai 6500 in Japan. The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) had put effort into her first submersible across the organisation. Miyuki’s father had also been active as a brilliant pilot and researcher of JAMSTEC, but died of illness without fulfilling his life ambition. Miyuki is intent on discovering herself in the deep sea that her late father had told her about when she was a child. However, at one time, she finds shocking footage from her father’s locker of the last submersible that he had allegedly piloted, and is assailed by fear.
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/umi

Shingari ~ Yamaichi Shoken Saigo no^*NEW*
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 20 September 2015
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriter: Todayama Masashi (Aibou Series)
Original Work: Shingari Yamaichi Shoken Saigo no 12-nin by Kiyotake Hidetoshi
Genre: Corporate
Cast: Eguchi Yosuke, Hagiwara Masato, Hayashi Kento, Matobu Sei, Katsumura Masanobu, Sato Bsaku, Yajima Kenichi, Miura Masaki, Kirishima Reika, Itagaki Mizuki, Okochi Hiroshi, Shinagawa Toru, Tanaka Ken, Sano Shiro, Mitsuishi Ken, Hirata Mitsuru, Kishibe Ittoku
Synopsis: In November 1997, Yamaichi Securities, one of Japan’s four largest brokerages, announced that it would voluntarily close down. Even its top brass had not been apprised of an approximate 260 billion yen of debt that was off the books until just before it happened. Off-the-books debt is against the law. Yamaichi Securities was too big and without financial strength as well as bank support, the Finance Ministry deemed that it would not file for bankruptcy protection, but seek the brokerage’s “voluntary closure” instead. When and how did 260 billion yen of losses off the balance sheet come about, and how was it kept hidden? While even the board of directors were bailing out of the sunken ship, there were employees who stayed on in the company until the end and continued to seek the truth as well as pay off customers. Called “outliers” within the company, they were people from departments that were considered a burden. These people were the rearguard.
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/shingari

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Official Website
www.tv-asahi.co.jp/keiji7

Broadcast
From 9.00 p.m., Wednesdays, 15 July 2015

Station
TV Asahi

Story
An explosion occurs on a yacht at the marina and the dead body of the former Finance Minister’s son, Ejiri Takayuki, is discovered. Samura Kosuke and the other members of the Twelfth Section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division receive this report and are mobilised. An unfamiliar man shows up there. The explosion had happened just at the time the sun was about to rise. The man makes the point that even though the yacht had been headed straight in the direction of the sun, there was no sunglasses at the scene. He is Amagi Yu, a detective new to his post with the Twelfth Section. The Twelfth Section is called the “graveyard of detectives” and ridiculed as the “banishment room where hardened detectives who cannot be fired are sent”. Its assembled detectives Samura Kosuke, Yamashita Takumi, Nagasawa Keita, Mizutani Tamaki and Katagiri Masatoshi are elite and yet have slightly difficult personalities. The results of an autopsy performed by forensic professor Domoto Shuntaro determines that Eijiri was strangled the night before the explosion. Meanwhile, Amagi is for some reason fixated on a courier service’s ‘not at home’ delivery slip that he found when he visited Eijiri’s apartment. After going from one place to the next, an important fact that will solve the case is finally comes into sight. But just when there is a new development in the investigation, the Twelfth Section is withdrawn from the case on the orders of the head of criminal investigations, and end up working a series of arson cases and the disappearance of a female employee. Amagi, who is following the serial arson, hears from factory worker Kaneko Masanobu that the bicycle of Abe Toshiya, a chauffeur at the home of the Law Minister Takada Koichiro, was burnt. On the other hand, Mizutani Tamaki and Samura find out a person called Ando Saki is the missing female who had worked using a fake name. Just then, an elementary school receives a phone call warning about an explosion. The Law Minister’s daughter, Takada Manami who attends this school, has been kidnapped! Amagi and the members of the Twelfth Section find a link between the three cases, which they had initially believed were unrelated, from the results of the investigations. Meanwhile, the case takes a turn in a direction that no one had even expected … … With a hunch that the timeline of these cases dates back to a kidnap and murder 20 years ago, Amagi takes a fresh look at them. He soon arrives at the “depressed feelings” that were the trigger for all of the cases … …

Characters
Coming soon!

Scriptwriter
Oishi Tetsuya (Scapegoat, Team ~ Keishichou Tokubetsu Hanzai Sousa Honbu)

Episodes
#1: The Last Statute of Limitations

Click here for photos from the press conference.

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Koinaka
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Mondays, 20 July 2015
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriter: Kuwamura Sayaka (Keibuho Sugiyama Kentaro, Shark Series, Mirai Nikki)
Genre: Romance
Cast: Fukushi Sota, Honda Tsubasa, Nomura Shuhei, Shinkawa Yua, Taiga, Ohara Sakurako, Otomo Karen, Ichikawa Yui, Yamamoto Mizuki, Babazono Azusa, Maeno Tomoya, Nagai Masaru, Yoshida Yo, Kobayashi Kaoru
Synopsis: Toyama native, Miura Aoi (Fukushi Sota), is a timid, indecisive man who dislikes summer. During high school days, he was the top swimmer of the swim team. But after that, he just became an adult and found employment. Ambivalent about his previous goal of becoming an architect, he passes his days without hope of getting ahead as an assistant for a small Tokyo architecture firm. One day in summer, Aoi is reunited with his first love, his childhood friend Serizawa Akari (Honda Tsubasa). When they were students, the two of them would spend every day together like it was the most natural thing to do. Akari would always support him when he was really hopeless. But one night during the fireworks display in their third year of high school, Akari suddenly disappeared … … Aoi is encouraged by their sudden reunion after seven years. However, there is another guy called Aoi (Nomura Shuhei) next to her.
Website: www.fujitv.co.jp/koinaka
Preview: Koinaka CM

Bijo to Danshi
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Tuesdays, 14 April 2015 (continues from last season)
Station: NHK
Scriptwriter: Tabuchi Kumiko (Dousousei, Go, Atsuhime)
Genre: Love comedy
Cast: Nakama Yukie, Machida Keita, Segawa Ryo, Nakahara Takeo, Tajima Reiko, Tokunaga Eri, Maekawa Yasuyuki, Azuma Mikihisa, Takahashi George, Nakayama Masei, Asano Kazuyuki, Morimoto Leo, Maya Kyoko, Kusakari Masao
Synopsis: A capable but unpopular showbiz manager, Sawatari Ichiko (Nakama Yukie), struggles to groom a younger, new male actor, Sakisaka Ryo (Machida Keita), whom she had scouted, into a star. An unmotivated Ryo slowly becomes conscious of the pleasures of acting. Bonds of camaraderie grow, and before long, love gradually blossoms between them.
Website: www.nhk.or.jp/drama10/bijo
Preview: Bijo to Danshi Introduction

Heat
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Tuesdays, 7 July 2015
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriters: Ushio Kentaro (Shomuni 2013, Take Five), Oura Kota (Shomuni 2013, Switch Girl 2), Tsubota Fumi
Cast: AKIRA, Kuriyama Chiaki, Sato Ryuta, Tanaka Kei, Nanao, Kudo Asuka, Suzuki Nobuyuki, Yoshizawa Ryo, Ide Takuya, Koshiba Fuka, Horiuchi Keiko, Masana Bokuzo, Sugawara Daikichi, Inagaki Goro
Synopsis: Ikegami Tatsuya (AKIRA), a businessman of a real estate company, has set his sights on Sachio City in southwest Tokyo as a candidate site for a multibillion-dollar urban development project. Concealing his identity, he joins the city’s fire brigade to obtain information on the landowners and acquire the site. As Ikegami comes in contact with the fire brigade which works hard for the local residents and faces disasters with rival firefighter Goda Atsushi (Sato Ryuta), his “my own interests first” conviction starts to waver little by little. On the other hand, the contest with staff pushing other candidate sites for the urban development project begins to intensify.
Website: www.ktv.jp/heat
Preview: Heat Introduction

Hotel Concierge
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Tuesdays, 7 July 2015
Station: TBS
Scriptwriter: Matsuda Yuko (Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai, Ghost Mama Sousasen, Misaki Number One)
Genre: Occupational
Cast: Nishiuchi Mariya, Miura Shohei, Omi Toshinori, Natsuna, Koseki Yuta, Yamada Yuki, Atsushi, Ikezu Shoko, Takeda Kohei, Asari Yosuke, Wakamura Mayumi, Ibu Masato, Takahashi Katsunori, Suzuki Honami (guest star), Asami Reina (guest star)
Synopsis: The foreign-owned Vollmond Hotel is a top hotel which gives the sense of the extraordinary. It has a distinctive atmosphere that makes a person feel special. The men and women of the hotel are friendly but restrained with guests. Amano Toko (Nishiuchi Mariya) is a young rookie concierge whose motto is to never say no to guests, but panics on the inside. She is the type who hates to lose and rushes headlong into things before reading the situation. She runs around within the hotel and gets the help of various departments in order to solve problems and put smiles on guests’ faces.
Website: www.tbs.co.jp/hotel_2015
Preview: Hotel Concierge CM

Hondana Shokudo Season 2
Date: From 11.15 p.m., Tuesdays, 7 July 2015 & October 2015
Station: NHK BS Premium
Scriptwriters: Taguchi Yoshihiro (Shoku no Gunshi, Kodoku no Gurume Series), Kaneko Yosuke, Honda Takaaki
Genre: Food
Cast: Nakamura Aoi, Emoto Tokio, Yamashita Rio, Yui Ryoko, Makita Sports
Synopsis: The male duo Sanada Nishiki (Nakamura Aoi) and Yamada Jiro (Emoto Tokio) are behind Himekawa Rosanna, the popular girls manga writer. The two of them were cultivated by an editor (Yui Ryoko) nicknamed the “Monster” and debuted as a girls manga writer. Despite their popularity, they really want to draw gourmet manga. The bookshelves of the secret library in their home office are lined with novels, essays and manga full of delicious food. When they are under the pressure of manga series deadlines, they would routinely escape from reality and into the “2D gourmet” in the books, forget about their deadlines and end up cooking.
Website: www4.nhk.or.jp/honshoku
Related: Hondana Shokudo Season 1

Onna Michi
Date: From 11.15 p.m., Tuesdays, 4 August 2015
Station: NHK BS Premium
Scriptwriters: Tanaka Hiromi, Tsubota Fumi (Kuro no Onna Kyoushi)
Original Work: Onna Michi by Kitazawa Bambi
Cast: Katase Nana, Watanabe Eri, Tokushige Satoshi, Ichikawa Yui, Ono Yuriko, Watabe Gota, Megumi, Asami Reina, Goda Masashi, Moto Fuyuki, Tateishi Ryoko, Haba Yuichi, Kaneda Akio
Synopsis: Yamaguchi Rika (Katase Nana) works for a record company. She has the worst birthday of her life when she is cheated of her money by a former boyfriend. An older woman (Watanabe Eri) dressed in a leopard print dress suddenly appears in front of her with white smoke. This older woman identifies herself as Rika from 20 years into the future. She laments her untimely death, which was caused by losing her footing on a beer bottle at a pub. She has come from the future in order to make a fresh start in life. Together with her future self with a despairingly different style and appearance, Rika begins a big battle to start over again.
Website: www.nhk.or.jp/pyd/onnamichi

Shimeshi
Date: From 1.11 a.m., Wednesdays, 24 June 2015
Station: TBS
Scriptwriter: Kanazawa Tomoki
Genre: Food
Cast: Murakami Jun, Hayashi Kento, Manaka Ayu, Mitsuishi Ken (guest star), Fukami Motoki (guest star), Tabata Tomoko (guest star), Mickey Curtis (guest star), Namioka Kazuki (guest star), Koyanagi Yu (guest star)
Synopsis: Le Bon Vivre is an intriguing restaurant that can reproduce cooking which no longer exists. People who visit the restaurant are those that feel conflicted, have worries or stand at the crossroads in life. Terayashiki Renichi (Murakami Jun), the taciturn chef with pride in his cooking, and his excellent assistant chef Oze Kiyoi (Hayashi Kento) present solutions to these worries with their new food.
Website: www.mbs.jp/shimeshi

Tonari no Seki-kun to Rumi-chan no Jishou^*NEW*
Date: From 1.11 a.m., Wednesdays, 29 July 2015
Station: TBS
Genre: School comedy

Tonari no Seki-kun
Scriptwriter: Hosokawa Toru
Original Work: Tonari no Seki-kun by Morishige Takuma
Cast: Watanabe Yutaro, Shimizu Fumika, Mayama Rika
Synopsis: Domino, shogi, golf, radio-controlled model cars and planes … … The games of the enigmatic student Seki-kun (Watanabe Yutaro) changes his ordinary desk into a playground and captivates the serious Yokoi-san (Shimizu Fumika) in the seat next to him although they are in the middle of a lesson. Psychological warfare unfurls between the two of them in the narrow space of the classroom. Seki-kun would play and Yokoi-san would end up distracted by him despite being on the edge of the seat.

Rumi-chan no Jishou
Scriptwriter: Tsukikawa Sho
Original Work: Rumi-chan no Jishou by Hara Katsunori
Cast: Tomita Shiroi, Mano Erina, Kishii Yukino
Synopsis:Her hobby and special ability is dislocation (not table tennis!). Her favourite type of guy is Yosuke in general. “My name is Nancy,” translates to “My name is Akemi”. She appears to sing Chiba Shinichi and Chiba Tetsuya at the karaoke. There are endless examples of her strange way of life. That is to say, Rumi-chan (Tomita Shiroi) is a little … no, she is rather quirky, but there is a part of her that is impossible to hate too. Friendship, love, studies, part-time work … Rumi-chan tries to lead the adolescence of a regular high school girl. But she will always be a lot different from regular and stray in an improbable direction.
Website: www.drama-sekirumi.com

Keiji 7-nin
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Wednesdays, 15 July 2015
Station: TV Asahi
Scriptwriter: Oishi Tetsuya (Scapegoat, Team ~ Keishichou Tokubetsu Hanzai Sousa Honbu, Keiji no Manazashi)
Genre: Detective
Cast: Higashiyama Noriyuki, Takashima Masahiro, Kataoka Ainosuke, Suzuki Kosuke, Kurashina Kana, Yoshida Kotaro, Kitaoji Kinya
Synopsis: Amagi Yu (Higashiyama Noriyuki) is a slightly eccentric detective who has been assigned to the Twelfth Section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division from the Lost and Found Centre. The Twelfth Section is called the “graveyard of detectives” and ridiculed as the “banishment room where hardened detectives who cannot be fired are sent”. Its assembled detectives Samura Kosuke (Takashima Masahiro), Yamashita Takumi (Kataoka Ainosuke), Nagasawa Keita (Suzuki Kosuke), Mizutani Tamaki (Kurashina Kana) and Katagiri Masatoshi (Yoshida Kotaro) are elite and yet oddballs. Amagi appears fixated with time which seems to have no relation with a case. Raising questions about the timelines of the perpetrator and victim derived from the estimated time of death, time of crime, time of alibi and time limit, he searches for the meaning of “blank time” which arises from this. He obsesses over the weight of every minute and second of time because of some incident.
Website: www.tv-asahi.co.jp/keiji7

Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 2
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Wednesdays, 8 July 2015
Station: NTV
Scriptwriters: Matsuda Yuko (Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 1, Piece, Misaki Number One), Umeda Mika (Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 1, Ghost Mama Sousasen, Misaki Number One), Yokota Rie (Soko o Nantoka Series, Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 1, Machi Isha Jumbo)
Original Work: Fushouji by Ikeido Jun
Genre: Corporate
Cast: Anne, Kamikawa Takaya, Narimiya Hiroki, Enoki Takaaki, Komoto Masahiro, Osugi Ren, Namase Katsuhisa, Tsukaji Muga, Terawaki Yasufumi (guest star), Katase Nana (guest star), Sato Bsaku (guest star), Watanabe Ikkei (guest star), Azuma Mikihisa (guest star), Kaneda Akio (guest star), Uchiyama Rina (guest star), Nakagoshi Noriko (guest star), Masana Bokuzo (guest star), Yamada Jundai (guest star), Miyaji Masako (guest star), Ishiguro Ken (guest star), Hakamada Yoshihiko (guest star), Totsugi Shigeyuki (guest star), Zaizen Naomi (guest star)
Synopsis: Hanasaki Mai (Anne) and Soma Ken (Kamikawa Takaya) of Tokyo Daiichi Bank continue to pursue numerous incidents and scandals which occur at the bank branches nationwide. This includes missing money, misappropriation, information leaks, fraudulent accounting, planned bankruptcies and the presidential fight of their longstanding foe, managing director Shindo Takeshi (Namase Katsuhisa).
Website: www.ntv.co.jp/hanasakimai
Preview: Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 2 CM
Related: Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 1

Risk no Kamisama
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Wednesdays, 8 July 2015
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriter: Hashimoto Hiroshi (Leaders, Sennyu Tantei Tokage, Unmei no Hito)
Genre: Corporate
Cast: Tsutsumi Shinichi, Toda Erika, Morita Go, Furuta Arata, Shiga Kotaro, Yamaguchi Sayaka, Mitsushima Shinnosuke, Yoshida Kotaro, Kohinata Fumiyo, Tanaka Min
Synopsis: Saigyoji Satoshi (Tsutsumi Shinichi), a legendary risk management specialist who used to be engaged in American corporate and government-linked risk management, and has solved numerous problems such as information leaks and recalls, is called the “god of risk” within the industry. He is hired to head the Crisis Management Office of Japan’s largest trading company, Sunrise Corporation, in order to handle potential problems and scandals. Kagari Kaori (Toda Erika), a Tokyo University graduate who has been with Sunrise Corporation for 10 years, is in charge of its Electronics Department and the most successful of her peers. However, she is always in trouble with her superior and colleagues because of her strong personality. She jointly develops the next generation battery “Life” with a global electronics manufacturer and is dispatched to the new company which has been launched. Her days get off to a smooth start as the young leader who epitomises “Life”. However, she ends up embroiled in recall problems due to a series of incidents in which home electrical appliances equipped with “Life” catch fire. After that, she has to work with Saigyoji at the Crisis Management Office.
Website: www.fujitv.co.jp/risk_no_kamisama
Preview: Risk no Kamisama Teaser

Manmakoto ~ Asanosuke Saiteichou
Date: From 8.00 p.m., Thursdays, 16 July 2015
Station: NHK
Scriptwriter: Yoshida Noriko (Henshin, Asunaro Sansan Nana Byoushi, Gekiryuu)
Original Work: Manmakoto, Koishiri and Koiwasure by Hatakenaka Megumi
Genre: Period
Cast: Fukushi Seiji, Minamisawa Nao, Kiriyama Ren, Cho Tamiyasu, Ichikawa Yui, Enari Kazuki, Hiyama Umekichi, Ishibashi Renji, Ibuki Goro, Ichikawa Sandanji, Takeshita Keiko, Takahashi Hideki
Synopsis: Takahashi Asanosuke (Fukushi Seiji) is the son and heir of the headman of a town. His father arbitrates civil cases which the town’s magistrate cannot try. Asanosuke and Yagi Seijuro (Kiriyama Ren), the resourceful son of the neighbouring town’s headman, are skilled because they apprenticed as constables. Soma Kichigoro (Cho Tamiyasu) is their close childhood friend. Asaknosuke had been a serious and outstanding youth until the age of 16. However, he became a carefree pleasure seeker at some point. Asaknosuke is usually completely unreliable, but actually possesses exceptional deductive skills. The trivial matters of Edo’s people would be brought to him each time. However, he would skillfully solve even the most chaotic and disentangled matters with unexpected methods.
Website: www.nhk.or.jp/jidaigeki/manmakoto

Saikyou no Futari ~ Kyotofukei Tokubetsu Sousahan
Date: From 8.00 p.m., Thursdays, 16 July 2015
Station: TV Asahi
Scriptwriters: Morishita Tadashi (Kaze no Toge, Taburakashi, Kakushou), Manabe Chiaki (Keishichou Sousa Ikka 9-gakkari Series, Deiri Kinshi no Onna, Sousa Chizu no Onna)
Genre: Detective
Cast: Hashizume Isao, Natori Yuko, Wada Masato, Sakai Miki, Tanaka Yoji, Harada Natsuki, Yoshimi Kazutoyo, Yanagi Yurina, Haba Yuichi
Synopsis: Shinonome Jinpachi (Hashizume Isao) has returned to the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s First Investigative Division as a specially commissioned detective. Meanwhile, Natsuki Asako (Natori Yuko) a team leader, has just been assigned to the division. Shinonome and Asako solve the same cases with completely different investigation methods. Shinonome has many information sources that he cultivated through his years of investigation. He would hit the streets and gather information that is not considered to have a direct relationship with a case. Asako has many fans within the police because she has moved from post to post. She is adapt at mobilising these allies and makes use of her inexperience in investigations to carry out daring ones. When these two investigation methods overlap, there will never be a typical investigation and unknown facts a step ahead of the solution will emerge
Website: www.tv-asahi.co.jp/futari

37.5°C no Namida
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Thursdays, 9 July 2015
Station: TBS
Scriptwriter: Umeda Mika (Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai Season 1, Ghost Mama Sousasen, Misaki Number One)
Original Work: 37.5 deg no Namida by Shiina Chika
Genre: Medical
Cast: Renbutsu Misako, Narimiya Hiroki, Hayami Mokomichi, Triendl Reina, Suzuki Rio, Mikami Kensei, Takizawa Saori, Nishimura Kazuhiko, Matsushima Hana, Shuri, Nagaike Natsuko, Kido Yuya, Tanigawa Risako, Ishida Tosei, Tanoue Yui, Yokoyama Ayumi, Fujiki Naohito (guest star), Miho Jun, Mizuno Miki, Asano Atsuko, Nakagoshi Noriko (guest star)
Synopsis: Sugisaki Momoko (Renbutsu Misako) used to be a nursery school teacher. Her difficulty smiling leads to communication problems with parents and her contract is terminated in one year. Momoko is picked up by ‘Little Snow’, a home care service for sick children, and makes a fresh start as a caregiver for sick children. When a child has a fever, the caregiver would visit the home and care for the child in place of the parents who simply cannot take time off from work. Momoko encounters all sorts of families at the places she is sent to. With the support of her colleagues and the occasional help of her best friend, Yumika (Triendl Reina), she starts to face work, romance, family and friendship.
Website: www.tbs.co.jp/375namida
Preview: 37.5°C no Namida CM

Age Harassment
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Thursdays, 9 July 2015
Station: TV Asahi
Scriptwriter: Uchidate Makiko (Byakkotai, Toshishita no Otoko)
Original Work: Age Harassment by Uchidate Makiko
Genre: Office
Cast: Takei Emi, Inamori Izumi, Seto Koji, Kaname Jun, Okura Koji, Naito Risa, Hara Mikie, Sugimoto Tetta, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Asano Kazuyuki, Aso Yumi, Takenaka Naoto, Kazama Morio, Koizumi Kotaro
Synopsis: Yoshii Emiri (Takei Emi) is a new employee of a top trading company. In addition to her motivation, skills and ambition, she possesses both youth and beauty. This would appear to be her passport to happiness. But because she is assigned to the General Affairs Department, the old guard which only pays lip service to “female employment”, everything she possesses becomes a target of harassment. The company only requires Emiri’s youth and beauty. Her dream of doing a good job and eventually becoming an executive officer is quickly crushed. On the other hand, Emiri just has to flash a smile and the male staff would fuss over her even though she did not ask for anything. She becomes the target of jealousy of the older female staff. Emiri is given a hard time simply because of her youth and beauty. Although she endures this every day, she soon reaches the limit of her patience. When Emiri rebels against the old-fashioned company, what awaits her is … …
Website: www.tv-asahi.co.jp/age
Preview: Age Harassment CM

Tantei no Tantei
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Thursdays, 9 July 2015
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriter: Tokunaga Yuichi (Suikyuu Yankees, Umi no Ue no Shinryoujo, Keiji 110 kg Series)
Original Work: Tantei no Tantei by Matsuoka Keisuke
Genre: Detective
Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, Kawaguchi Haruna, Miura Takahiro, Dean Fujioka, Ito Masayuki, Rokkaku Shinji, Takayama Yuko, Shibuya Kento, Sakata Masanobu, Yoshine Kyoko, Aijima Kazuyuki, Nakamura Yuri, Satoi Kenta, Santamaria Yusuke, Takaoka Saki, Iura Arata
Synopsis: The cool, beautiful Sasaki Rena (Kitagawa Keiko) is the lone investigator who works for a mid-sized investigation firm’s newly established department in charge of examining and questioning unscrupulous investigators. She wants to learn everything about an investigator, but she does not want to become one. Her beloved younger sister, Sakura (Yoshine Kyoko), was murdered by a stalker and she has been searching for the investigator who caused her sister’s death in order to take revenge.
Website: www.fujitv.co.jp/tantei
Preview: Tantei no Tantei CM

Konkatsu Deka
Date: From 11.59 p.m., Thursdays, 2 July 2015
Station: NTV
Scriptwriter: Masumoto Takuya (Panic In, Kodomo Keishi, Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo)
Original Work: Konkatsu Deka Series by Ando Yasumichi
Genre: Mystery
Cast: Ito Ayumi, Koike Teppei, Masu Takeshi, Mori Kanna, Kuriyama Wataru, Kawamura Emiko, Kataoka Asuka, Akaboshi Shoichiro, Yoshimitsu Hiroto, Kato Ryo, Suzuki Sawa, Osugi Ren, Wada Masato (guest star), Nakamura Shunsuke (guest star)
Synopsis: 35-year-old Hanada Yoneko (Ito Ayumi) is a detective of Ryogoku Police Precinct who is looking for a marriage partner. She swings between love and justice as she pursues cases with her partner, Fujioka Tsutsuji (Koike Teppei). Yoneko will not turn a blind eye to crime. In addition, she wants to be happy. But for some reason, all the handsome men she likes turn out to be criminals.
Website: www.ytv.co.jp/konkatsu

The Last Cop
Date: From 19 June 2015, Fridays
Station: NTV & Hulu
Scriptwriter: Sato Tomoharu (Jikoku Sensei Nube)
Original Work: Der letzte Bulle
Genre: Detective
Cast: Karasawa Toshiaki, Kubota Masataka, Sasaki Nozomi, Matsuo Satoru, Kurokawa Tomoka, Kuji Akiko, Tayama Ryosei, Suzunosuke, Miyakawa Ichirota, Saito Yuki, Sano Shiro, Wakui Emi, Emoto Tokio (guest star), Takimoto Miori (guest star), Malia (guest star), Ryusei Ryo (guest star)
Synopsis: In 1985, Kyogoku (Karasawa Toshiaki) is an unconventional but passionate to the point of overeagerness detective who has solved many cases. He corners a violent criminal called Kagura, but at that moment, a bomb planted by Kagura explodes and Kyogoku slips into a coma for 30 years. One day in 2015, Kyogoku suddenly wakes up and visits his wife, Kanako (Wakui Emi). However, she has remarried and rebuffs him. Just at the moment he is behaving violently, he ends up getting arrested by a young detective, Mochizuki Ryota (Kubota Masataka) and brought to Yokohama Chuo Police Precinct where he is reunited with his former junior Suzuki (Miyakawa Ichirota), and boss Kujira (Tayama Ryosei). Kyogoku quickly returns to his position as a detective. However, he cannot comprehend the latest gadgets and the “new wisdom”. He keeps ignoring modern rules without a care and getting Ryota, who has been made his buddy, into trouble.
Website: www.ntv.co.jp/lastcop
Preview: The Last Cop CM

Bokura Playboys Jukunen Tanteisha
Date: From 7.58 p.m., Fridays, 17 July 2015
Station: TV Tokyo
Scriptwriter: Yoshimoto Masahiro (Kageri Yuku Natsu, Kabuka Bouraku, Koukousei Restaurant)
Original Work: Kanreki Tantei by Fujita Yoshinaga
Genre: Investigative
Cast: Takahashi Katsumi, Ishida Junichi, Sakai Maki, Fuji Manami, Nakamura Shizuka, Sasano Takashi, Kadono Takuzo, Ito Shiro
Synopsis: The average age of the five members of Playboys Investigation Agency is about 65. Furthermore, the four investigators (Takahashi Katsumi, Ishida Junichi, Sasano Takashi, Kadono Takuzo) gathered by the boss Tsuchiya Genroku (Ito Shiro), who used to be a First Investigative Division detective, have possessed careers far removed from detective work. The clients of the agency are also middle aged and older with all sorts of problems such as middle-aged divorce, employment, nursing care and pet loss. Playboys Investigation Agency solve these problems, and at times, achieve results beyond what they have been requested to do.
Website: www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/playboys

Ichiro
Date: From 8.00 p.m., Fridays, 31 July 2015
Station: NHK BS Premium
Scriptwriter: Watanabe Mutsuki (Challenged Series, Genya, Reset)
Original Work: Ichiro by Asada Jiro
Genre: Period
Cast: Nagayama Kento, Watanabe Dai, Mimura, Fujimoto Takahiro, Kajihara Zen, Matsuura Miyabi, Oshinari Shugo, Yajima Kenichi, Kamijo Tsunehiko, Ishiguro Ken, Sano Shiro
Synopsis: 19-year-old Onodera Ichiro (Nagayama Kento), who was born and raised in an Edo residence, is hastily summoned to return to his hometown after his father, the chief attendant of feudal lord processions, is killed in an accidental fire at home. Ichiro’s family is the Makisakas of West Mino. Although the Makisakas are vassals of the shogun with 7,500 koku, they are a distinguished family that has the status of a feudal lord. The role of the chief attendant is to manage the entire journey from the preparation of the procession of the feudal lord to his alternate residence. Fire caused by negligence is actually a grave offense that would result in confiscation of their stipend, but Ichiro is ordered to be the chief attendant because of the impending departure of the procession. However, he has never taken over the role from his father. If he should fail, there is a possibility that this could be the end of the family line. Assailed from all sides and with no one he can turn to, Ichiro decides to rely on the ancestral records of the processions, which his father had risked his life to protect, and heads for Edo. This is a battle to him. But in fact, the procession this time has been set up to bring down the feudal lord in an attempt to usurp the family.
Website: www.nhk.or.jp/jidaigeki/ichiro

Akagi
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Fridays, 17 July 2015
Station: BS Sky Perfect
Scriptwriter: Tanabe Mitsuru (Henshin, Jui-san Jiken desuyo, dinner)
Original Work: Akagi ~ Yami ni Oritatta Tensai by Fukumoto Nobuyuki
Cast: Hongo Kanata, Tsugawa Masahiko, Tanaka Yoji, Jinbo Satoshi, Kaku Tomohiro, Kasahara Hideyuki
Synopsis: Akagi Shigeru (Hongo Kanata) is a young, white-haired mahjong genius. One summer in 1965, he ends up facing off against Washizu Iwao (Tsugawa Masahiko), Japan’s King of Darkness who has amassed enormous fortune and power, at the request of his acquaintance, the rogue detective Yasuoka (Jinbo Satoshi). As the observer, Ogi Takeshi (Tanaka Yoji), a leader of the henchmen of Inada-gumi watches over them, mahjong with special rules called Washizu Mahjong begins. It is a life or death struggle with Akagi’s fresh blood and Washizu’s entire fortune at stake.
Website: www.bs-sptv.com/zawazawa

Omotesando Koukou Gasshoubu!
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Fridays, 17 July 2015
Station: TBS
Scriptwriter: Sakurai Tsuyoshi (Genkai Shuraku Kabushiki Gaisha, Miss Pilot, Priceless)
Genre: Youth, music
Cast: Yoshine Kyoko, Shison Jun, Yoshimoto Miyu, Morikawa Aoi, Horii Arata, Takasugi Mahiro, Hagiwara Minori, Izumisawa Yuki, Aoi Wakana, Shibata Kyoka, Kojima Riria, Hasegawa Nina, Matsumoto Ramu, Kabira Jay, Horiuchi Keiko, Kanda Sayaka, David Ito, Tateishi Ryoko, Hiraizumi Sei, Takahata Atsuko, Shirota Yu
Synopsis: Kagawa Makoto (Yoshine Kyoko) has transferred to Tokyo’s Omotesando High School from Kagawa Prefecture. Devoted to the choir when she was in Kagawa, Makoto is active in Omotesando High School’s choir too. The school choir’s prestige and the fact that Suzuki Ariake (Shirota Yu), the teacher who had once taught her the joy of singing in a choir is its adviser, fills her with anticipation. However, the choir’s glory is a thing of the past. Now it is on the verge of being disbanded. Makoto remembers Ariake as someone full of motivation with a love of the choir and a princely appearance. But the person she meets again is dissipated and only has interest in hostess bars. Despite her shock to see the change in Ariake, Makoto makes up her mind to make over the choir.
Website: www.tbs.co.jp/omosan-gassyobu
Preview: Omotesando Koukou Gasshoubu! CM

Tamiou
Date: From 11.15 p.m., Fridays, 24 July 2015
Station: TV Asahi
Scriptwriter: Nishiogi Yumie (SPEC Series, Ando Lloyd, Honjitsu wa Taian Nari)
Original Work: Tamiou by Ikeido Jun
Genre: Fantasy comedy
Cast: Endo Kenichi, Suda Masaki, Motokariya Yuika, Jiyoung, Takahashi Issei, Kaneda Akio, Minemura Rie, Yamauchi Takaya, Hara Kintaro, Iketani Nobue, Rokkaku Seiji, Kusakari Masao
Synopsis: One day, the current prime minister of Japan, Muto Taizan (Endo Kenichi), and his useless son, Sho (Suda Masaki), suddenly discover that they have switched bodies. With no known cause or solution at hand, Sho reluctantly ends up appearing in the Diet on his father’s behalf. But he completely cannot follow the deliberations as well as the questions and answers because it has been his routine to skip his studies. He is also repeatedly caught making childish responses or misreading kanji in documents. However, untainted by the adult world, Sho’s straightforward opinions and genuine feelings start to mobilise the Diet and the public. On the other hand, Taizan has to lead the life of a university student and search for a job on behalf of his son, but with the brains of a prime minister. He refutes arrogant interviewers with his overwhelming knowledge and debating skills. Although Taizan wins the war of words, he is an absolute failure in the interviews itself. Furthermore, several peculiar girls whom Sho has had relationships with appear and makes Taizan more bewildered.
Website: www.tv-asahi.co.jp/tamiou
Preview: Tamiou Teaser

Dokonjo Gaeru
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Saturdays, 11 July 2015
Station: NTV
Scriptwriter: Okada Yoshikazu (Kokoro ga Pokitto ne, Sayonara Watashi, Nakuna, Hara-chan)
Original Work: Dokonjo Gaeru by Yoshizawa Yasumi
Cast: Matsuyama Kenichi, Mitsushima Hikari, Maeda Atsuko, Katsuji Ryo, Arai Hirofumi, Yakushimaru Hiroko, Shiraishi Kayoko, Shirahane Yuri, Mitsuishi Ken, Shirahane Yuri, Denden
Synopsis: One day, junior high school student Hiroshi tumbled in a park and crushed a frog. However, that frog attached itself to Hiroshi’s t-shirt and became a flat-faced frog. Furthermore, it could talk and possessed more human-like feelings than a human being. This was the birth of Pyonkichi (voiced by Mitsushima Hikari), the flat-faced frog. Hiroshi and Pyonkichi would go on to live, helping each other and quarreling at times. 16 years later, Hiroshi (Matsuyama Kenichi) is a useless guy. But a sudden change in Pyonkichi leads to his decision to start life afresh. Meeting Kyoko-chan (Maeda Atsuko) again for the first time in a long while, Hiroshi learns that she is no longer the Kyoko-chan of the past and summons the courage to save her.
Website: www.ntv.co.jp/dokonjyo
Preview: Dokonjo Gaeru Introduction

Enka ~ Gold Rush
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Saturdays, 18 July 2015
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriter: Egashira Michiru (Otto no Kanojo, Naniwa Shonen Tanteidan, Gokusen Series)
Original Work: Enka by Kurokawa Hiroyuki
Genre: Action suspense
Cast: Moriyama Mirai, Takahata Mitsuki, Nakamura Yuri, Kinoshita Houka, Kimura Yuichi, Onoue Hiroyuki, Katsura Bunchin
Synopsis: Art instructor Kumagai (Moriyama Mirai) works for a private Osaka high school for girls, but his salary is at a discount to certified teachers. Sakai (Katsura Bunchin), the school’s chairman, runs the school like his own. One day, Kumagai is approached by music teacher, Nahoko (Takahata Mitsuki) and physical education teacher Oyamada (Onoue Hiroyuki) who seek to confront Sakai with proof of his wrongdoings and secure their own positions. Things are still going well up to the point they boldly venture into the apartment of Sakai’s mistress, Akemi (Nakamura Yuri). But after that, Sakai and Akemi disappear. The couple seem to have been kidnapped by the “education consultants” Minowa (Kinoshita Houka) and Nakao (Kimura Yuichi) for some reason. Kumagai and Nahoko unwittingly get involved in a scheme to steal the vast amount of gold bars which are Sakai’s hidden assets. Who are the real criminals? They deceive and get deceived as a struggle for the gold bars begins around Osaka and Kobe.
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/enka

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san
Date: From 11.40 p.m., Saturdays, 27 June 2015
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriters: Kyuma Ayumu, Aso Kumiko (Yami no Bansosha, Zannenna Otto, Kazoko no Urajijou)
Original Work: Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san by Narumi Naru
Genre: Food
Cast: Hayami Akari, Miyama Karen, Furuhata Seika, Ono Yutaka, Tanaka Hideki, Muramatsu Toshifumi
Synopsis: Koizumi-san (Hayami Akari), a cool, beautiful high school student of few words, is in fact a ramen expert who seeks and tries out delicious ramen with gusto every day.
Website: www.fujitv.co.jp/ramen_koizumi
Preview: Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san CM

Napoleon no Mura
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Sundays, 19 July 2015
Station: TBS
Original Work: Roma Houou ni Kome o Tabesaseta Otoko Kaso no Mura o Sukutta Super Koumuin wa Nani o Shita ka by Takano Josen
Cast: Karasawa Toshiaki, Aso Kumiko, Yamamoto Koji, Muro Tsuyoshi, Iwamatsu Ryo, Hoshida Hidetoshi, Nagase Tasuku, Yamashita Kenjiro, Hamano Kenta, Hashimoto Manami, Mizutani Kaho, Senga Yukiko, Yoshida Yuki, Kajiwara Takuto, Urashima Koji, Issey Ogata, Sawamura Ikki
Synopsis: Asai Eiji (Karasawa Toshiaki) is an employee of the Tokyo metropolitan government and rather well-known within the government office. As a government official with the role of shaping Japan’s future, he focuses attention on underpopulated areas called marginal villages and decides to revitalise Kagura Village in Hoshikawa City, Tokyo which is on the verge of ceasing to exist. Kagura Village is one of more than 10,000 marginal villages in Japan. Half of the villagers are over 65 and their average annual income is 870,000 yen. Asai speaks of successive villages seeking revival by creating value that only the locality would have. He is certain that Kagura Village has something great too and declares that they will definitely figure it out. His childhood friend and management consultant, Togawa Makoto (Yamamoto Koji), gives a strained laugh in response. Asai goes alone to Kagura Village at the western end of the Tokyo metropolis and attempts to mobilise municipal personnel who fear rocking the boat and villagers who have given up on a revival because of the ageing population.
Website: www.tbs.co.jp/Napoleon_no_mura
Preview: Napoleon no Mura Teaser

Aru Hi, Ahiru Bus
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 5 July 2015
Station: NHK BS Premium
Scriptwriters: Yamamuro Yukiko, Yokota Rie (Soko o Nantoka Series, Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai, Otto no Kanojo), Kanome Keiko
Original Work: Aru Hi, Ahiru Bus by Yamamoto Yukihisa
Genre: Occupational
Cast: Fujiwara Norika, Triendl Reina, Yamashita Kenjiro, Aoyama Noriko, Kataoka Ainosuke, Hakamada Yoshihiko, Nakamura Tomoya, Nomura Masumi, Akizuki Narumi, Kido Airi, Komatsu Mizuki, Yanagi Yurina, Hashimoto Tenka, Kimura Midoriko
Synopsis: 40-year-old Asakura Hazuki (Fujiwara Norika) works for a big publishing company and is the editor of the female magazine ‘Us’. However, the magazine is discontinued. Hazuki’s contract with the publishing company is not renewed and she ends up losing her job. To make matters worse, she breaks up with Kosuke (Yamashita Kenjiro), her boyfriend of seven years, and is pressed for the loan on designer goods which she bought on a spree. At 40, Hazuki is on the verge of losing everything. At that moment, she happens to get scouted to be a bus guide on Ahiru Bus, a city sightseeing tour which she has boarded. She is plunged into the completely foreign world of female bus guides. Hazuki aims to turn her life around as she as she journeys around a rapidly changing Tokyo.
Website: www.nhk.or.jp/pd/ahirubus
Preview: Aru Hi, Ahiru Bus CM

Shi no Zouki
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 12 July 2015
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriters: Takayama Naoya (Tokumei Tantei Series, Again!!, Seinaru Kaibutsutachi), Suzuki Satoshi (Tokusou, Doku Poison)
Original Work: Shi no Zouki by Asano Ryo
Genre: Medical suspense
Cast: Koizumi Kotaro, Toyohara Kosuke, Konishi Manami, Ogi Shigemitsu, Kawano Naoki, Niizuma Seiko, Shiba Toshio, Takeda Tetsuya
Synopsis: Numazaki Kyota (Koizumi Kotaro), a director of a company which produces TV programmes, discovers a dead female body. A forensic autopsy determines that she froze to death. However, it also turns out that one of her kidneys has been removed. On the other hand, a patient at Hino Hospital has been receiving dialysis. Her body is approaching its limits and her daughter beseeches the attending physician, Hino Seiichiro (Takeda Tetsuya), to transplant her own kidney to her mother. But Hino adamantly refuses. Meanwhile, an injured man and woman are taken to a hospital. The hospital director, Ota Isamu, (Ogi Shigemitsu) notices that a kidney transplant had been done between them from their respective surgery scars. Then he learns that the kidney was purchased with money and notifies the police. Hino, who was the surgeon, is asked by the police to come voluntarily for questioning. This news spurs Numazaki to make the decision to go on gathering materials on the connection between the dead body that he found and the organ trade. He soon starts to get close to the darkness in medical treatment.
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/zouki
Preview: Shi no Zouki CM

Ishi no Mayu
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 16 August 2015
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriter: Watanabe Kensaku
Original Work: Ishi no Mayu Keishichou Satsujin Bunsekihan by Asami Kazushi
Genre: Investigative
Cast: Kimura Fumino, Aoki Munetaka, Watanabe Ikkei, Hira Takehiro, Kitami Toshiyuki, Koyanagi Yu, Furukawa Yuki, Kanno Misuzu, Danta Yasunori, Nakamura Toru
Synopsis: The body of a person who died an unnatural death is discovered encased in mortar like concrete in the basement of an abandoned building. Why was the person murdered this way? The next day, the investigation task force receives a phone call from the criminal who calls himself Tremi during a meeting to discuss the investigation of the case. Then, in a short time after her transfer to the First Investigative Division, Kisaragi Toko (Kimura Fumino) becomes the negotiator. Tremi mocks and provokes the police while offering hints regarding the murder. A second murder soon occurs just as Tremi had warned. The victim’s head has been covered with concrete as they had expected. What is the criminal’s motive and why is the criminal fixated with concrete? The criminal’s surprising actual target soon emerges … …
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/mayu

Death Note
Date: From 10.30 p.m., Sundays, 5 July 2015
Station: NTV
Scriptwriter: Izumi Yoshihiro (Gokuaku Ganbo, Kurokouchi, Tokkan)
Original Work: Death Note by Obata Takeshi
Genre: Detective, sci-fi thriller
Cast: Kubota Masataka, Yamazaki Kento, Yuki Mio, Sano Hinako, Fujiwara Reiko, Seki Megumi, Maeda Goki, Yuge Tomohisa, Hankai Kazuaki, Sato Jiro, Matsushige Yutaka
Synopsis: One day, the god of death drops a notebook in the human world where it is picked up by Yagami Light (Kubota Masataka). It is the notebook of death that will determine people’s deaths. Once a name is written in the notebook, that person will die instantly.
Website: www.ntv.co.jp/drama-deathnote
Preview: Death Note CM

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Official Website
www.tbs.co.jp/omosan-gassyobu

Broadcast
From 10.00 p.m., Fridays, 17 July 2015

Station
TBS

Story
Kagawa Makoto has transferred to Omotesando High School in Tokyo from Kagawa Prefecture. Devoted to the choir when she was in Kagawa, Makoto is intent on being active in the prestigious school choir too. Moreover, the fact that Suzuki Ariake, the teacher who had once taught her the joy of singing in a choir is its adviser, fills her with anticipation. However, she discovers on her first day at the school that the choir’s glory is a thing of the past. Now, it has hardly any members and is on the verge of being disbanded. Even the president of the club, Aiba Kentaro, is passive about its fate. He and a member, Sasaki Yoshiko, irresponsibly blame everything on Ariake. Makoto remembers Suzuki as someone who loved choir singing from his heart and taught students with enthusiasm. But the person she meets again is dissipated and only has interest in hostess bars and gambling. Despite her shock at seeing the change in Ariake, Makoto has a “goal” that she must achieve at the school choir where her parents once spent their youth. She makes up her mind to turnaround the choir. Learning that eight members are required for the club to keep going, Makoto braves hostility from the students around her and pushes ahead with rounding up members. Then she is told by a classmate, Hikita Rina, that there are clear divisions between the students at Omotesando High School – “First Army”, “Second Army” and “Out of Range”. Popular, handsome Natsume Kaito and Tani Yuria, who has been scouted by a talent agency, have made the most of their school and private lives. They are the “First Army”. Students decent in their studies and club activities such as the baseball club’s Sakuraba Daisuke belong to the “Second Army”. Geeks, unspectacular students, choir members Aiba and Yoshiko, a truant Miyazaki Tasuku and others are classified “Out of Range”. Rina who has worked hard to be in Yuria’s inner circle, and just barely kept her position in the “First Army”, advises Makoto not to get involved with the choir. However, Makoto’s reply is … …

Characters
Yoshine Kyoko as Kagawa Makoto
A high school student who has transferred from Kagawa Prefecture to Omotesando High School. She loves choir singing and belonged in the choir in junior high school and high school. When she was an elementary student, she was taught how wonderful choir singing is by Suzuki Ariake who had come on teaching practice. Her parents have grown estranged because the business of the udon shop ‘Kagawaya’ which her father, Yuji, runs is on the decline. Her mother, Minayo, has decided to move to Tokyo where her family is. She is earnest, unassuming and stubborn. She is also clumsy and unable to read situations to a certain extent. When she is feeling worried or depressed, she will do the “10-second jump” which her grandfather taught her to energise herself before it gets her down.

Shison Jun as Natsume Kaito
A classmate who belongs to the “First Army”. He wears an affable, easy-going mask, and is one of the popular guys of his school year. He has a close relationship with his childhood friend Tani Yuria and he treats her like a younger sister. On the other hand, he has a keen interest in Kagawa Makoto whose personality he finds fun and she starts to be on his mind. He is actually suffering from some illness and does not have the courage to undergo surgery recommended by the doctor. Because of that, he has given up on having dreams for the future and having good friends.

Yoshimoto Miyu as Tani Yuria
She is clever, beautiful and has good communication skills. Idolised by the people around her, she is the leader of the “First Army”. After she was scouted by a talent agency, her popularity has become unassailable. But lately, she has been feeling suffocated by the talent activities and starts to question if this is really what she wants to do. At that moment, the interest that her childhood friend Natsume Kaito has started to take in the free-spirited Kagawa Makoto gets on her nerves and she treats Makoto like an enemy … …

Morikawa Aoi as Hikita Rina
Both her looks and grades are mediocre, but she is good at pick up the mood around her and bringing humour to situations. She has narrowly managed to secure a place in the “First Army” as someone useful. In fact, she wishes to be an idol. But because her first consideration is whether she will do all right in her school life, she does not talk about her own dreams. However, she meets Kawaga Makoto and is shocked to see her doing things her way.

Horii Arata as Sakuraba Daisuke
A classmate who belongs to the “Second Army”. A member of the baseball club. Although he got into the high school on a baseball recommendation, he has been on the bench for eternity after an injury. He recently lost out to a junior for a regular place. In his heart, he realises that he has reached his limitations as a sportsman. But he cannot give up because of his father’s expectations and his fear of suffering setbacks. He is invited to the choir by Kagawa Makoto who has noticed that his rich voice, but … …

Takasugi Mahiro as Miyazaki Tasuku
A member of the choir who has not bee attending school. Naturally he belongs to “Out of Range”. He was educated at the same junior high school as Sakuraba Daisuke, and they used to be good friends. But some incident led to him being ostracised by the people around him. He no longer felt comfortable in school and ended up withdrawing from the outside world. He is only a member in name now. Kagawa Makoto appeals to him in an attempt to get him back so that the the choir can continue, but he rejects the members including the president, Aiba Kentaro. What exactly happened?

Shirota Yu as Suzuki Ariake
His love for choir singing developed into a career as a music teacher. He was chosen to be the music teacher of Omotesando High School because of this passion and became an adviser to its choir. He had constantly guided the club to the top ranks with his leadership and enthusiasm. But some incident led to his present interest in hostess bars and gambling, and he has become a useless teacher mired in debt. However, his passion for music and choir singing still lurks inside, and he has a different look in his eyes when asked by Kagawa Makoto to teach choir singing and arrange music and when involved in music.

Takahata Atsuko as Osone Tokuko
The principal of Omotesando High School. She is a generous and tolerant person. She places emphasis on the autonomy of students and quietly watches over their respective activities. She had once been a music teacher and was the adviser of the school’s choir at the time Kagawa Makoto’s parents, Yuji and Minayo, were members. Suzuki Ariake was her junior in the university’s choir and she was the one who brought him over as a music teacher. She knows he is hurt and is deeply concerned about him. She wishes that he will have hope again and mentor the choir.

Scriptwriter
Sakurai Tsuyoshi (Genkai Shuraku Kabushiki Gaisha, Miss Pilot)

Episodes
#1: Performing Miracles with the Power of Songs

Click here for photos from the press conference.

Related Post:

• Omotesando Koukou Gasshoubu! CM

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Fuji TV gets criticised for putting Risk no Kamisama head on with NTV’s Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai … Summer has been a bruising season for Fuji TV. At last count, all its dramas have fallen to single digit viewership ratings with the exception of Koinaka which will only kick off on Monday. Risk no Kamisama, which marks Tsutsumi Shinichi’s return to a leading role with Fuji TV for the first time in 16 years after hit dramas like Pure and Yamato Nadeshiko in the late 1990s, has been battered since it started airing on 8 July. It managed just 7% in viewership ratings in the first episode compared to 14.7% for the second season of NTV’s Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai. The gap between the two dramas didn’t narrow very much in the second episode. However, feedback on the drama has mostly been good with viewers expressing dismay about the viewership ratings despite the interesting content and calling for a stop to measuring the drama by ratings. This has caused an outcry questioning why Risk no Kamisama had to go head on with Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai. Netizens have pointed to the irony of the title of the drama and how the inability to manage risk led to the drubbing. Fuji TV’s lack of crisis management ability has become a hot topic. Some industry insiders have also said the network itself is in need of a god of risk and viewership ratings are not the only problem. Interestingly, a recent article noted that Risk no Kamisama would have been a natural fit for Fuji TV’s Thursday 10 pm slot which has dealt with many dramas of the social genre. But Tantei no Tantei was given the slot to prevent Kitagawa Keiko’s image from being associated with a flop since there are no competing dramas from the other networks. The first episode was brisk and rather entertaining in a simplistic way. It was really about Toda Erika’s character as it followed her swift transformation from golden girl (she doesn’t make a convincing multi-linguist) to scapegoat. The god of risk himself made little impression. In fact, Tsutsumi didn’t have to do much other than to deliver lines like “A crisis is a chance”. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that all that acting talent have may go to waste in a drama that will probably be trotting out all the textbook crisis scenarios for our characters to tackle.

Koinaka a “guaranteed bomb”? … Fuji TV’s Geku has yet to air, but it has already been hit with tremendous negativity. Netizens have deemed the acting skills of the two leads, Fukushi Sota and Honda Tsubasa, beneath the level of a Geku. People within the entertainment industry are apparently calling Fuji TV “too foolhardy”. There is allegedly talk within the network that it will be a “guaranteed bomb” and a mood of resignation regarding the choice of Honda Tsubasa as Koinaka’s heroine too. One TV magazine writer observed that Koinaka would appeal to teens and might have been better in the late night slot than golden hour. While Fukushi and scriptwriter Kuwamura Sayaka had a hit movie with Strobe Edge which premiered in March this year, Strobe Edge is based on a very popular manga. Koinaka is an original production and Kuwamura does not have solid credentials yet. Noting that last season’s Yokoso, Wagaya e which was adapted from Ikeido Jun’s novel of the same name and starred Arashi’s Aiba Masaki in the lead had barely kept its two digit viewership rating, the writer believes there is a high likelihood that the combination of two the young leads will pull in a one digit viewership rating for the first episode. According to a source close to the network, if the leading actor is young, the actor or actress who plays opposite him will usually be someone who can act well and be the backbone of the drama. But this line-up is completely dependent upon Fukushi. So what is Fuji TV thinking? Someone familiar with dramas disclosed that Fuji TV has commenced not-so-secret discussions on scrapping its Monday 9 pm drama slot. In his remarks at a regular briefing in April, the president of Fuji TV had said the sluggish viewership ratings for the new programmes are “an extremely uphill battle” and “dramas are the primary cause of this situation”. The insider says responsibility is being pushed around within the network and staff are stunned that Tsubasa is being entrusted with the fate of Fuji TV’s golden hour which has produced a string of hit dramas in the past. It is being whispered that a live variety talk show will take the place of the drama slot.

Official Website
www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/enka

Broadcast
From 10.00 p.m., Saturdays, 18 July 2015

Station
WOWOW

Story
Kumagai Toru is a poor art instructor who works for Seiho Girls High School, a private high school in Osaka with the motto ‘courtesy, virtue, outreach’, but his salary is a third less than certified teachers. Sakai Yuzo, the school’s chairman, runs the school like his own. One day, Kumagai is approached with a proposal by music teacher, Masaki Nahoko, and physical education instructor Oyamada who seek to confront Sakai with proof of his wrongdoings and secure their own employment. Things are still going well up to the point they boldly venture into the apartment where Sakai lives with his mistress, Morino Akemi, for direct negotiations. But after that, Sakai and Akemi go missing and bloodstains are left behind … … The couple seem to have been kidnapped by the “education consultants” Minowa Katsuhisa and Nakao Shuichi for some reason. Kumagai and Nahoko unwittingly get involved in a scheme to steal the vast amount of gold bars which are Sakai’s hidden assets. Who are the real criminals? They deceive and get deceived as a struggle for the gold bars begins around Osaka.

Characters
Moriyama Mirai as Kumagai Toru
Seiho Girls High School’s full-time art instructor. After graduating from an art college, he failed in business and was saddled with debt that led to his career switch. He has the confidence of his students. He works like a regular teacher but his salary is a third less.

Takahata Mitsuki as Masaki Nahoko
Seiho Girls High School’s free-spirited music teacher. She also performs at a live music bar without telling the school. She is watched by the school because of her regular flashy behaviour, but she enjoys popularity among the students.

Katsura Bunchin as Sakai Yuzo
The chairman of Seiho Girls High School. The king of Kansai’s private education world. He runs the school as it were completely his own. This attracts fiery praise and criticism, but he is actually broad-minded and quite something.

Nakamura Yuri as Morino Akemi
Sakai Yuzo’s mistress. A shrewd hostess of a club in Kita Shinchi.

Onoue Hiroyuki as Oyamada
Seiho Girls High School’s full-time physical education instructor. He gets involved with Kumagai Toru and Masaki Nahoko in a scheme to kidnap the chairman.

Kinoshita Houka as Minowa Katsuhisa
An education consultant who has full knowledge of the seamy side of running a school. Because of his personal grudge against Sakai Yuzo, he instigates Oyamada to plot the robbery of Sakai’s fortune.

Kimura Yuichi as Nakao Shuichi
Minowa Katsuhisa’s strong but dim sidekick. He is meant to be an equal partner with Minowa.

Scriptwriter
Egashira Michiru (Otto no Kanojo, Gokusen Series)

Original Work
Enka by Kurokawa Hiroyuki

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All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Official Website
www.tbs.co.jp/Napoleon_no_mura

Broadcast
From 9.00 p.m., Sundays, 19 July 2015

Station
TBS

Story
Asai Eiji is an employee of the Tokyo metropolitan government and rather well-known within the government office. As a government official with the role of shaping Japan’s future, he focuses his attention on underpopulated areas called marginal villages and decides to revitalise Kagura Village in Hoshikawa City, Tokyo which is on the verge of ceasing to exist. Asai delivers a speech to a large group of people involved in a big project with a 100 billion yen budget. “I believe nothing is impossible!” His bold, captivating message mixing Napoleon’s words are met with applause. Asai’s childhood friend, Togawa Makoto, who is a management consultant, is surprised to learn about Asai’s work on revitalising rural Hoshikawa City. Kagura Village in Hoshikawa City is one of more than 10,000 marginal villages in Japan. Asai talks about the emergence of successive villages seeking revival now by creating value that only that locality would have. He is certain that Kagura Village has something great too and declares that they will definitely find it. Togawa gives a strained laugh in response. On Asai’s first day of work at Hoshikawa City’s Town Hall, he is quickly kept in check by the city’s mayor Fukumoto Junya who warns, “Forget the metropolitan government’s way of doing things. Please follow the rules of this town hall.” Furthermore, the staff of the Agriculture, Forestry, Commerce and Industry Division including the division head Yamada Daichi, who is a minion of Fukumoto, steers clear of Asai. No one is in a welcoming mood. Above all, Misaki Yukari, who stands out among the staff, has been ordered by Fukumoto to keep an eye on Asai and make sure he does not do unnecessary things. As the person responsible for Kagura Village, Asai is immediately put in charge of the planning committee members for the village festival. However, the budget handed to him is the usual 10,000 yen. Yukari takes an astonished Asai around the village with terraced rice fields, an abundance of crops and fish swimming in the clear stream. He is moved by the beauty of this original Japanese landscape. However, there is barely anyone here. Young people have left, the population has declined and half of the villagers are over 65. This is the reality of Kagura Village. Yukari introduces Asai to the Shinto priest, Komoda Kozaburo, who has earned the trust of the villagers. Asai says that he wants the festival to be grand and intends to solicit contributions from the villagers. He is told to meet all the villagers in person and sets about this task at once. However, teacups and ashtrays fly at him when he goes around to the houses. It is a harsh refusal by the villagers. Asai learns that they do not wish to liven up the festival. In the midst of this, Asai and Yukari visit the home of Igawa Tomiko whom they encountered at the town hall, and see the beautiful Japanese paper that she has created. Asai wonders how he can revitalise the village. Yukari tells him, “This village will eventually become a village without inhabitants.” Fukumoto is thinking of the village’s dissolution for the sake of the city’s development. Asai is laughed at by everyone in the division. However, his broad grin behind their back does not escape Yukari. At a later date, Asai gathers the villagers at the community centre and announces the festival’s main event. It will be sky lanterns; Tomiko’s Japanese paper released into the night sky by candle flame. Asai says in front of the villagers who shrink back, “The truth is, doesn’t everyone want to bring life back to this village and want to protect your hometown?” Asai gets pass the watchful eyes of Fukumoto and the rest and starts to spring into action to implement his plan for the Kagura Festival. With a 10,000 yen budget, Asai produces some innovative ideas that surprise the city government and villagers. His positive attitude to revitalise the village gradually changes the people around him who fear rocking the boat and who have given up on a revival because of the ageing population.

Characters
Coming soon!

Original Work
Roma Houou ni Kome o Tabesaseta Otoko Kaso no Mura o Sukutta Super Koumuin wa Nani o Shita ka by Takano Josen

Episodes
#1: There’s Nothing Impossible About This Village! A Super Civil Servant’s Miraculous Revitalisation of a Marginal Village on the Brink of Extinction

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Related Post:

• Napoleon no Mura CM

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Date: From 9.00 p.m., 20 July 2015
Scriptwriters: Kojima Hideki, Yoshida Teruyuki
Original Work: Dokutsu Ojisan Kouya no 43-nen
Cast: Lily Franky, Nakamura Aoi, Tomita Kaito, Inoue Jun, Kiuchi Midori, Asari Yosuke, Sakai Maki, Ono Machiko, Ono Takehiko, Namase Katsuhisa
Synopsis: In a farming village in 1959 (Showa 34), Kayama Kazuma (Tomita Kaito) grew up in a poor family. He left home at 13 because he could not tolerate ill-treatment from his parents and lived hidden in a cave deep in the mountains. He became proficient at survival skills such as making bows and arrows, and catching rabbits and wild boars on his own. His beloved dog supported him through this lonely life. Several years later, a kind farming couple Sunagawa Yoshio (Inoue Jun) and Masayo (Kiuchi Midori) discover a man clad in animal fur living in a cave. He is the grown-up Kazuma (Nakamura Aoi). Kazuma starts to make contact with the world despite his confusion. It is the first time he experiences the kindness of humans as the Sunagawas love him like their own child. After that, he encounters traders selling flowers and learns about making money by selling mountain vegetables and orchids. But he is cheated by a friend he trusts and despairs of life. Although Kazuma contemplates suicide, he makes the decision to live again. Running away from Kyushu, he (Lily Franky) learns to read and write from a homeless person and even experiences his first love after 50. But one day, Kazuma ends up getting arrested by the police for his attempt to wrench open a faulty vending machine. He starts to talk about his astounding life, surviving alone for 43 years when interrogated by police officers (Asari Yosuke, Namase Katsuhisa) … …
Official Website: www4.nhk.or.jp/P3600

All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.

Official Website
www.fujitv.co.jp/koinaka

Broadcast
From 9.00 p.m., Mondays, 20 July 2015

Station
Fuji TV

Story
In the not too distant future from now, a wedding ceremony is about to take place at a chapel. Serizawa Akari, the bride dressed in a white wedding dress, is anxious. The groom has not arrived yet. At that moment, Miura Aoi is making a mad dash for the chapel. Aoi Shota steps off the bullet train and into the station. He rushes to the chapel too. One of them is attending the wedding as the groom, the other as a representative of friends. This is the story leading up to one of the two Aois marrying Akari. It is 2015 in Tokyo. Aoi is working as an assistant at an architecture firm. It is an opening to his dream to be an architect. However, he gets caught up in work and loses sight of this dream. This maybe the reason why his company president, Niwa Mariko, points out that he is disappointing while his workplace colleagues Isohara Shinichi, Tominaga Mirei and the rest ridicule him too. Furthermore, his ex-girlfriend Saeki Ruiko dumped him for being good-for-nothing. Neither work nor romance go well for him. One day, when he comes back to the apartment where he lives with his younger sister, Nanami, his mobile phone rings. The call is from his friend from high school days, Kanazawa Kohei, who has got in touch with him about a class reunion which will be held in Tokyo. Kohei’s message causes Aoi to think of his high school years despite himself … and of Akari whom he has not met in seven years … In Toyama in 2008, childhood friends Aoi and Akari would freely come and go between each other’s house and spend every day together like it was the most natural thing to do.. Aoi was also on familiar terms with Akari’s father, Hirotoshi. They were mutually in love, but they could not honestly put it in words and carried on having a delicate relationship. Meanwhile, Shota transfers to the school from Tokyo. Because of that, the relationship between the two of them slowly changed. In the summer of their third year of high school, Aoi is eager to invite Akari for the fireworks festival and confess his feelings to her in the belief that he may get separated from her once they graduate. But Akari suddenly disappears during the fireworks display. Aoi is forced to bury his feelings for her deep within him. He is encouraged by their sudden reunion after seven years. However, there is another guy called Aoi standing next to her.

Characters
Coming soon!

Scriptwriter
Kuwamura Sayaka (Keibuho Sugiyama Kentaro, Shark Series)

Episodes
#1: The Summer You were Present

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Related Post:

• Koinaka CM

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