Official Website
www.tokai-tv.com/toge
Broadcast
From 11.40 p.m., Saturdays, 8 October 2016
Station
Fuji TV
Story
Kuranaga Haruyuki lives modestly with his wife Yumi and their son Shinya. He is the assistant chief of the citizen consultation centre at the municipal office of Wani no Kuni. In the three years since his transfer here, he has been leading a stressful life and battling stomach pains every day because he is continuously busy at the counter and on the phone with citizens. One person on the centre’s blacklist is Shirogane Kayo who asks for Kuranaga once a week. Kuranaga’s diligent, polite, methodical, cowardly and quiet personality gets him sandwiched between his subordinates Funatsu Maki, who has emotional highs and lows, and the heavily made-up Tachibana Erika, who does not attempt to communicate at all; his vain yet timid boss Torizuka Yoichi and the citizens who come with impossible demands and complaints. Everyone surrounding the mayor Tokiwa Eita are yes-man including Torizuka. One day, the enormous administrative costs of a vacant lot becomes the target of a citizens’ group. It is a problem that Sumiyoshi from the Land Development Public Corporation had neglected but he shifts the responsibility to Kuranaga, who raised the issue, and takes out his anger on him. When Kuranaga returns home, more trouble is waiting. The tyres of the family car have all been punctured. Yumi is furious about this malicious harassment. The family has been dealing with practical jokes and harassment lately. She thinks it is because he is working at the citizen consultation centre and presses him to request for a transfer. Then the shadow of a person flits by in the background. Kuranaga gives chase and collides with his wife’s friend, Kakizono Mami. He also comes across a man in a parka spraying graffiti on a park signboard … … Yumi’s complaints do not stop. She is forced into a position that requires little work at the same municipal office as Kuranaga. Meanwhile, Shinya gets labelled the main bully by friends at school. Kuranaga walks away from the scene to keep the peace which only serves to anger his wife who has had enough of this behaviour. His only outlet is griping to the tropical arowana fishes that he keeps as he drinks low-malt beer. He eventually erupts one day due to an emergency situation. This awakens his sense of justice and he starts to fight problems in the workplace and his family that leads to a feel-good conclusion.
Characters
Tanabe Seiichi as Kuranaga Haruyuki
The assistant chief of the citizen consultation centre at the municipal office of Wani no Kuni, and a typical middle management personnel. After graduating from university, he worked for a non-profit organisation with the vague aim of wanting to help people. While tackling mostly local environmental destruction and pollution problems, he wondered which field would be for the greater public good. At 27, he applied when the municipal office was recruiting temporary staff. He passed the exam on his third attempt and was hired. After that he held positions in various departments. His fate was sealed following his transfer to the citizen consultation centre three years ago and his days have been stressful. He is diligent, polite and methodical in his work and carries out his duties with honesty. He has no friends at work or in his personal life. The tropical arowana fishes that he rears becomes the only one he talks to.
Nishida Naomi as Kuranaga Yumi
Kuranaga Haruyuki’s wife. She works for the Cultural Hall at the municipal office of Wani no Kuni. She was charging at full speed in the elite course. However, Kuranaga who had joined the municipal office as a temporary staff, pursued her and this stirred her maternal instinct. She fell in love and got married. She took maternity leave when she had their son Shinya. Upon returning to work after childbirth, her ambition for career advancement waned and she became a mother focused on raising her child. She seems accustomed to and influenced by her husband’s pace of life. She still gives off the air of a capable woman even now with her refreshing personality and style. She is also popular in her son’s class. However, there are many females in the municipal office who are jealous of her lifestyle.
Nishimura Kazuhiko as Osada Koji
The head of the Environment Division. He is the only person whom Kuranaga Haruyuki can respect in the municipal office’s compartmentalised administrative structure which gives people the runaround. He is the type with leadership ability. Or so Kuranaga thought, but he is using Kuranaga to defeat the current mayor Shirogane Kayo in the next election. He is a man of many mysteries.
Kinomi Nana as Shirogane Kayo
A regular complainant who is nicknamed “red eyes”. She is an unreasonable woman with many problems. There are various views on the reason for “red eyes”. She is personally concerned about this name, but she always wears red sunglasses and seldom shows her eyes. Although she appears frequently in front of Kuranaga Haruyuki, her life is shrouded in mystery.
Kaga Takeshi as Tokiwa Eita
The mayor of Wani no Kuni. He was elected two years ago when the municipalities were merged and the name was immediately changed to Wani no Kuni City. Although this was the result of soliciting names from citizens, but he was inspired by a fossilised stone that was discovered more than 30 years ago orchestrated it with the sole purpose of getting people’s attention. He loves grandstanding and his advocacy about open government is popular with citizens, but a part of him is scheming and he has his sights on entering the national political arena.
Scriptwriters
Mikuni Tsuzuko
Obayashi Rieko (Koekoi, Kari Kare)
Ogawa Masue (Kyoto Ninjo Sousa File)
Original Work
Toge by Yamamoto Koshi
Related Post:
All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.
Tagged: Tanabe Seiichi, Toge Shoushimin Kuranaga Haruyuki no Gyakushu
