Asian Drama

Shibusawa Eiichi was born in 1840 to a farmer’s family. He grew up helping his family with work, which was to manufacture and sell indigo production and also silk farming. He left his hometown at the age of 23 and began working for the government. He later traveled to Paris and learned about banking. Upon his return to Japan, he helped build up the first modern bank in Japan. He eventually became a founder or supporter to about 500 companies and was involved with about 600 public services, including education for women.

Akutsu Eiji is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago. The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Akutsu Eiji comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Sone Toshiya lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days.

~~ Adapted from the novel "The Voice of Sin" (罪の声) by Shiota Takeshi (塩田武士), which in turn was inspired by the extortion case "Glico Morinaga case" (グリコ・森永事件).

Kurihara Kiyokazu and Satoko are a married couple. They do not have children. They learn about plenary adoption and adopt a baby son. 6 years later, the couple live happily with their son Asato. They receive a phone call from a woman, who introduces herself as Katakura Hikari. She is Asato's birth mother. She tells them she wants her son back, but, if she can't, she wants money.

Kiyokazu and Satoko met Hikari one time in the past. At that time, Hikari was 14 years old. She was a nice girl, who gave them a letter for baby Asato. But when Kiyokazu and Satoko meet Hikari again, there is no image of Hikari as a nice girl anymore. Who is she? What is her purpose?

Based on Mizuki Tsujimura's 2015 novel of the same name.

A team of Touken Danshi, swords brought to life as a gang of talented but dysfunctional young men, travel back in time to stop an enemy force seeking to change history as we know it. Their mission: to ensure the events of Honno-ji proceed and Oda Nobunaga dies.

Based on the popular video game "Tōken Ranbu Online".

17-year-old Aoi came to Yui Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic as a part-time nurse apprentice in Summer 1997. Right after her entry, she is shocked after witnessing an abortion surgery. However, she also met staff members like Yui, the head of the clinic who is careful about everything, Sayako, a reliable and experienced nurse, and Sakaki, the gentle head nurse, who face each pregnant patient and support them after surgeries. Fumika, Aoi's mother, is worried about her clumsy nature and poor communication skills, but Aoi's unique compassion and kindness draws patients' hearts. "I wonder what's life..." Aoi matures while looking at the newborn babies' overwhelming life and asking herself that question.

Kyosuke Yakumo works as a reportage writer. His fiance is Yuriko Matsuda and they will marry soon. For his next book, Kyosuke Yakumo begins research on a burned to death murder case involving a beautiful blind woman. The suspect in the case is photographer Zakayudai Kihara.

Based on the novel "Kyonen no Fuyu, Kimi to Wakare" by Fuminori Nakamura.

Saigo Takamori, the hero of the Meiji Restoration, was born to a poor, low-ranking samurai family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture). His simple honesty caught the attention of its charismatic feudal lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira. Nariakira’s assertion that the love of people is what will enrich and strengthen the nation captivated Saigo who took on Nariakira’s secret mission and eventually became a key person for Satsuma. Not a portrait of him survives today and much of his life is a mystery. He is a man who was twice exiled and thrice married. He overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate with exceptional bravery and action. Although he accomplished the restoration, he lost his life in a fight with the new Meiji government.

Based on the novel "Sego Don" by Hayashi Mariko.

Itomura Satoshi is back again, but in Kyoto and with a new team. He begins work at the 1st Investigation Division of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Station. The 1st investigation division with deals with the most difficult cases.

Natsume Mochizuki was a magazine model in Tokyo but moves to the rural town of Ukigumocho. Mochizuki, feeling depressed about living in the boring countryside, meets Koichiro Hasegawa, a member of a locally prominent family of Shinto priests, and gets caught in an intense attraction… It’s an epic love story that intensely and beautifully depicts the feelings of omnipotence and frustration that comes with being a teenager.

The 95th NHK Asadora is about Sumire, a girl born in the uptown of Kobe in the early Showa period. In the wake of wartime devastation, she works hard toward making children's clothes for a living, and later establishes a first-ever children's goods store in Japan. -- NHK

In 1895 (Meiji 28), Nonaka Chiyoko prays for the safety of her husband Itaru who is attempting to climb Mt Fuji in midwinter. If he accomplishes what no one has done before, he would finally build an observatory on the mountain’s summit with the intention of staying there alone in the winter. He will be able to observe the weather in order to advance meteorological studies even though it may be at the cost of his own life. Burning with a conviction that the country cannot be changed if no commoner demonstrates it first, Itaru has the support of his parents and younger brother but Chiyoko is absolutely anxious. She is convinced that her husband will certainly die of such recklessness if she lets him go alone, and decides to climb Mt Fuji together with him. However, this is vehemently opposed by her mother-in-law Tomiko who berates her that her place is at home, and Chiyoko apparently reconsiders. In order to join Itaru, she hides this plan from the people around her, deceives Tomiko and does everything possible to finally carry it out. On the summit of Mt Fuji in midwinter – a feat no one has yet achieved, husband and wife battle the cold and altitude sickness as they begin their observations.

Episodes: 6

Duration: 58 min.

Ratings: 7.2

Aired On: Saturday

Makita Takahiro works in the Public Relations (PR) Department of Nagawara Seiyaku, a major pharmaceutical company in Japan. One day, on his way to work, he witness someone committing suicide by jumping onto the railway tracks, into the path of an oncoming train. A few days later, he is called into the Vice President, Anjo Takao's office, where he is told that the suicide may have something to do with one of the drugs manufactured by the company. Anjo then assigns Takahiro to work with the police on their investigations. As Nagawara Seiyaku is currently undergoing talks with a major foreign equity group on a possible merger, any bad publicity will put an end to that. The company will definitely go under then, as they are in the red due to the economic crisis. Takahiro has been told to not breathe a word about the investigations to anyone, not even his fiancee, Morita Mayumi, who is working as Anjo's secretary.

When the autopsy records the said drug to be found in the deceased's body, Anjo instructs Takahiro to approach the family, to persuade them on an out-of-court settlement, while they are writing up reports for the Ministry of Health. Torn between his obligation to the public and to the company, Takahiro approaches the company lawyer, Takafuji Tatsumi, for advice and help.

In the end, will Takahiro ignore his conscience in order to protect the company's profit?

Adapted from the 2014 novel "Godan" by Dōba Shunichi.

A psychological drama that explores the dilemma of whether a person who has had integral parts of them changed, fundamentally remain the same person.

Naruse Junichi hopes to one day become a painter, but he works currently on a factory line. His girlfriend is Megumi and his days are generally happy. On Christmas Eve, Junichi stops by a jewelry store to buy an engagement ring. He then becomes a part of a robbery at the jewelry and he suffers a head injury. Junichi becomes the first successful brain transplant patient in the world.

Junichi is unaware that he received a brain transplant. When he is discharged from the hospital, Junichi's hearing becomes sensitive and he also becomes violent. He does not hold the same feelings for his girlfriend, Megumi. Junichi realizes he is changing and becomes seized with horror. Meanwhile, Megumi hopes Junich becomes his old self. She also seeks to unlock the hidden mystery of Junichi's operation.

Adapted from the novel "Henshin" by Keigo Higashino.

In 1895 (Meiji 28), Nonaka Chiyoko prays for the safety of her husband Itaru who is attempting to climb Mt Fuji in midwinter. If he accomplishes what no one has done before, he would finally build an observatory on the mountain’s summit with the intention of staying there alone in the winter. He will be able to observe the weather in order to advance meteorological studies even though it may be at the cost of his own life. Burning with a conviction that the country cannot be changed if no commoner demonstrates it first, Itaru has the support of his parents and younger brother but Chiyoko is absolutely anxious. She is convinced that her husband will certainly die of such recklessness if she lets him go alone, and decides to climb Mt Fuji together with him. However, this is vehemently opposed by her mother-in-law Tomiko who berates her that her place is at home, and Chiyoko apparently reconsiders. In order to join Itaru, she hides this plan from the people around her, deceives Tomiko and does everything possible to finally carry it out. On the summit of Mt Fuji in midwinter – a feat no one has yet achieved, husband and wife battle the cold and altitude sickness as they begin their observations.

Episodes: 6

Duration: 58 min.

Ratings: 7.2

Aired On: Saturday