Hiyokko
Date: From 8.00 a.m., Mondays – Saturdays, 3 April 2017
Station: NHK
Scriptwriter: Okada Yoshikazu (Kibougaoka no Hitobito, Kiseki no Hito, Dokonjo Gaeru)
Cast: Arimura Kasumi, Sawamura Ikki, Kimura Yoshino, Furuya Ikkou, Mineta Kazunobu, Sakuma Yui, Izumisawa Yuki, Hada Michiko, Shibata Rie, Toyama Toshiya, Matsuo Satoru
Synopsis: 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko (Arimura Kasumi) grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Tokyo seemed like a different world even though it is in Kanto because of the poor access to transportation. Her father Minoru (Sawamura Ikki) has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn money for her elder brother’s university tuition fees. Once Mineko graduates from high school, she wants to help out in the farm work and give her grandfather Shigeru (Furuya Ikkou) and mother Miyoko (Kimura Yoshino) an easier life. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko (Sakuma Yui) and Mitsuo (Izumisawa Yuki) are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighbourhood. The wages are low and the working hours are long. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Then companies go bankrupt due to the recession after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the factory is shut down. Mineko has no where to go, but thankfully gets a job helping out at a Western restaurant that her father had declared “delicious” in one of his stories about Tokyo. Everyone at the restaurant including the female proprietress and her son who is the chef, works her hard, but are soft-hearted and start to become like family. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends and colleagues. Will she be able to find her father?
Website: –
Crisis Kouan Kidou Sousatai Tokusou-han
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Tuesdays, April 2017
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriter: Kaneshiro Kazuki (Border, SP Series)
Original Work: SP Keishichou Keibibu Keibuka Dai 4-gakari by Kaneshiro Kazuki
Genre: Action
Cast: Oguri Shun, Nishijima Hidetoshi
Synopsis: The Special Investigation Unit is a secret force of specialists in various fields. The unit is under the dihttps://jdramas.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.phprect control of the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Bureau. Its members include investigator Inami Akira (Oguri Shun) who sustained serious trauma in a special mission during the time he was in the Self-Defence Forces; and Tamura Saburo (Nishijima Hidetoshi) who was ordered to transfer from the Public Security Department’s Foreign Affairs Division in the wake of some incident and was later picked out by the Special Investigation Unit. These men will find themselves confronting irregular cases that will shake up the country.
Website: www.ktv.jp/crisis
Hito wa Mita Me ga 100%*NEW*
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Thursdays, April 2017
Station: Fuji TV
Scriptwriter: Aizawa Tomoko (Onna to Otoko no Nettai, Biblia Koshoudo no Jiken Tecchou, Kagi no Kakatta Heya Series)
Original Work: Hito wa Mita Me ga 100% by Okubo Hiromi
Cast: Kiritani Mirei
Synopsis: Jounouchi Jun (Kiritani Mirei) is a researcher who works at a paper manufacturer. She has been so immersed in research that she is at the bottom rung of stylishness. She lacks self-confidence, is unpopular with men and also poor at girls talk. Seeking to free herself from her current situation, Jun starts to research trendy makeup, fashion and beauty with her two colleagues.
Website: –
Yasuragi no Sato
Date: Spring 2017 (for two seasons)
Station: TV Asahi
Scriptwriter: Kuramoto Sou (Kaze no Garden, Haikei Chichiuesama, Yasahii Jikan)
Cast: Ishizaka Koji, Asaoka Ruriko, Arima Ineko, Kaga Mariko, Kusakari Tamiyo, Itsuki Midori, Nadaka Tatsuo, Tokiwa Takako, Nogiwa Yoko, Fuji Tatsuya, Fubuki Jun, Matsuoka Mayu, Mickey Curtis, Yachigusa Kaoru, Yamamoto Kei
Synopsis: Kikumura Sakae (Ishizaka Koji) visits ‘Yasuragi no Sato La Strada’, a home for the elderly. Kano Eikichi, the head of a big entertainment production group, invested his personal fortune after the group sudden broke up and created this free home which only admits people who have made contributions to movies and television in its heyday. However, Kano himself is not present. His eldest daughter, Midori (Kusakari Tamiyo), and her husband Shuhei (Nadaka Tatsuo) manage this facility. Kikumura was a scriptwriter who was very popular at a time. In fact, when he was feeling utterly exhausted from caring for his wife (Fubuki Jun), a former actress who suffers from dementia, he had received a sudden invitation from Midori. But just as he makes the decision to admit himself and his wife, his wife passes away. Deciding to live alone in the room, Kikumura sets foot in Yasuragi no Sato La Strada. He sees people from the golden age of television who have already faded from memory down there and is dumbfounded by this vision. Great former actors and actresses give him smiles. This is how Kikumura’s new life begins … …
Website: www.tv-asahi.co.jp/yasuraginosato
Hokuto ~ Aru Satusjinsha no Kaishin
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Saturdays, 25 March 2017
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriter: Takimoto Tomoyuki (Tenshi to Akuma, Watashi to iu Unmei ni Tsuite )
Original Work: Hokuto Aru Satusjinsha no Kaishin by Ishida Ira
Cast: Nakayama Yuma, Matsuo Suzuki, Murakami Jun, Nakamura Yuko, Ito Sairi, Nikaido Satoshi, Negishi Toshie, Riju Go, Yajima Kenichi, Onishi Riku, Urabe Fusako, Owada Kensuke, Yamada Anna, Fujita Yumiko, Shimada Kyusaku, Miyamoto Nobuko
Synopsis: 20-year-old Hokuto (Nakayama Yuma) is being detained as a murderer and tells his court-appointed lawyer Takai Soichi (Matsuo Suzuki) to get him the death penalty. Hokuto was actually severely abused by his parents in his childhood and starved of love. He met Kondo Ayako (Miyamoto Nobuko) who became his foster mother through child welfare services and learnt of love for the first time. Released from the darkness of his mind, he started to feel like a new person but he is made sport by bizarre fate and becomes a murderer.
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/hokuto
Samurai Gourmet*UPDATED*
Date: From 17 March 2017 (updated on Fridays)
Network: Netflix
Scriptwriter: –
Original Work: Nobushi no Gurume by Kisumu Masayuki
Genre: Food
Cast: Takenaka Naoto, Tamayama Tetsuji, Suzuki Honami
Synopsis: Kasumi Takeshi (Takenaka Naoto) has spent his entire life devoted to his job. Now a retired man, he finds himself with plenty of extra time on his hands. He never had the luxury of a beer during the day on a weekday during his 35 years as a salaryman. But in that instant Kasumi gets acquainted with the taste of that one glass and eating alone, discovering the joys of day time drinking and the realisation that he is now free to eat and drink what he wants, when he wants. This awakens his inner persona – a wandering samurai (Tamayama Tetsuji) living life freely in Japan’s age of civil wars. Thus begins his search for blissfully delectable delights to satisfy his stomach and the samurai’s soul.
Website: –
Hitoya no Toge
Date: From 10.00 p.m., Sundays, 19 March 2017
Station: WOWOW
Scriptwriter: Suzuki Satoshi (Shi no Zouki, Tokusou, Daremo Mamottekurenai)
Original Work: Hitoya no Toge by Daimon Takeaki
Genre: Suspense
Cast: Kubota Masataka, Ozawa Yukiyoshi, Izumiya Shigeru, Ikeda Narushi, Hagiwara Masato, Nonami Maho, Komakine Yusuke, Tanaka Yoji, Arizono Yoshiki, Moro Morooka, Hotaru Yukijiro, Nakamura Ikuji
Synopsis: Takeshima Ryota (Kubota Masataka) is a new prison officer whose late father was also in the same profession. He sets foot in Kita Kanto Prison and sees corrupt prison officers quietly condone the bullying of prisoners and gamble inside. One day, Nakui Soichi (Ozawa Yukiyoshi) from the Ministry of Justice becomes the new prison chief. Meanwhile, Ryota is given a rough welcome by Kamimiya Korekiyo (Izumiya Shigeru), a prisoner with clout. A senior officer Akimura Shigeharu (Hagiwara Masato) offers Ryota advice, but Akimura’s baffling actions bewilder him. Then Nakui gives Ryota instructions in an attempt to cleanup the festering prison. On top of that, Kamimiya gets close to Ryota and hints that he knows something about his father’s death. What is the justice and truth in the prison which is a closed world that no one knows … …
Website: www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/hitoya
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