Asian Drama

Aoi Minase is in her 40's. She works as a popular writer of romance novels. She is also a single mother, who raised her daughter alone. Her daughter is now 20-years-old. Due to Aoi Minase's success as a romance novelist, Aoi lives with her daughter in an upscale high-rise apartment building. Aoi is worried about her daughter. Her daughter doesn't have a boyfriend. Aoi Minase believes this is because her daughter is an otaku, who enjoys manga and cosplay. Her daughter does want to fall in love.

Meanwhile, Aoi’s daughter is worried about her mother. Her mother has a girl like sensibility and oblivious to the ways of the world. Somehow, Aoi and her daughter decide to meet someone to fall in love with.

Eiichi wanted to become a top shogi player and attended a shogi player training center run by the Japan Shogi Association. At the training center, he could not beat Riku, who is extremely talented in the game, and Eiichi eventually gave up on becoming a shogi player. To live a more normal life, he enrolled in a university. Because he spent most of his time playing shogi, he has a hard time adjusting to campus life. He does not have any friends at school. One day, Eiichi comes across an AI based shogi computer program. The computer program is more creative and stronger than he expected. This piques Eiichi interest in computer programming, specifically for shogi games. He visits an AI research club and meets senior student Isono. He learns about computer programming from Isono and makes a new goal for himself. Eicchi now wants to write a top shogi computer program. A few years later, Eiichi wins a computer shogi competition. He receives a request to play against Riku.

Based on the true story about Aizawa Hospital ( Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture ), where Nao Kodaira who won a gold medal at the 500m Woman's speed skating at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 works, has received a miracle after falling into a bankruptcy crisis due to large debts.

Kenji Amo is a 2nd generation Japanese-American. He was born in America but went to school in Japan. He returned to America to study at UCLA. Now, Kenji Amo works as a reporter for a newspaper in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles.

Charlie Tamiya also studied at UCLA with Kenji Amo. Charlie Tamiya has feelings for Nagiko who works with Kenji Amo at the same newspaper company. Knowing that, Kenji Amo holds complicated feelings. At this time, Nagiko's friend Emi Hatanaka asks Kenji Amo to marry her. He accepts her proposal, but the Pacific War begins. Circumstances surrounding Kenji Amo changes.

In the second month of the ninth year of the reign of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, a great fire tore through the town of Edo. Starting from Maruyama, it spread to Komagome. The prosperous greengrocer Yaogen was also razed as well. The only daughter of the house of Yaogen, Oshichi, was then sent to stay at the Daijoji (temple) until the shop, which also served as her home, was rebuilt. At the temple, Oshichi fell in love at first sight with the Kichisaburo, who works at the temple. Kichisaburo seems to be the son of a samurai, whose identity is unknown. Having been left at the temple when he was a young boy, Kichisaburo has known no other life than that of working at the temple, but he aspires to be a scholar. Yaogen is rebuilt, and so Kihee sends for his daughter Oshichi. Impressed with one of his employee, Kanzo, Kihee aims to make him his son-in-law and successor to his business. However, when the subject is broached to Oshichi, no matter what, she refuses to say yes. In her heart, there is already Kichisaburo. On his side, Kichisaburo too, has strong feelings for Oshichi, and before long, their secret love marks the start of a tragic love story

Kusakabe Gengo, a patrol officer of the Tsukigase domain in Western Japan, gets a visit from his son-in-law, Tsuda Iori. Tsuda probes if it is true that Gengo and the chief retainer, Matsuura Shogen, are truly childhood friends. Gengo and Shogen were childhood friends and went to the same kendo training school. 40 years ago, the two men were bound by such a firm friendship that they avenged Shogen’s parents together. However, they had differing opinions regarding an uprising raised by a mutual friend, Juzo, and fell out 20 years earlier. Gengo is handed a command from the lord of the domain to assassinate Shogen. Shogen, who quelled the uprising with ruthless methods, rose to become the chief retainer, but the rumours are that he has incurred displeasure because he is hindering the rise of the lord of the domain. However, Shogen is known to the public as an artist so it would look bad if he were publicly executed. Gengo, who has been ordered to handle it as a fight due to a personal grudge, searches for the place for Shogen to die. He decides to visit Shogen for the first time in 20 years. When the paths of the two men cross again as they approach old age, fate starts moving again.

Adapted from the 2007 historical novel "Ginkan no Fu" by Hamuro Rin.

The 31st NHK Asadora Drama is Oshin. Oshin tells the story of a girl born in a very poor rural family in Japan, who through hard work and perseverance eventually triumphs over pain and adversity to achieve fame and success. Broadcast in the early 1980s when Japan had finally cast off the legacy of the post-war years and the Japanese were beginning to reap the benefits of economic development, the aim of the story was to recall the hardships the older generation had endured in order to pave the way for their children to enjoy their more affluent lifestyle. Viewers were drawn to the suffering of the main character Oshin - and then drew similarities between her story and their own home lives.

Some Japanese worried that showing Oshin abroad would give the country a bad profile - and would even be shameful because it showed the seldom glimpsed, poor, unequal side of Japan. In the event, the reverse proved true. Oshin gave viewers outside Japan - whose only image of Japan was formed by Japanese cars or electric goods, or through bitter memories of Japanese treatment during World War II - a far better understanding of the modern Japan and its people.