Asian Drama

N/A

Episodes: 20

Duration: 54 min.

Aired On: Wednesday

Higa Nobuko was born and raised with her four siblings in a farmhouse in the "Yanbaru region" in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. She aims to become a chef drawing inspiration from Okinawan cuisine. The four siblings follow very different paths, but the memories of their hometown connect their hearts and they're able to overcome their hardships as a family.

Higa Nobuko was born and raised with her four siblings in a farmhouse in the "Yanbaru region" in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. She aims to become a chef drawing inspiration from Okinawan cuisine. The four siblings follow very different paths, but the memories of their hometown connect their hearts and they're able to overcome their hardships as a family.

N/A

Adapted from the manga "Fullmetal Alchemist" (鋼の錬金術師) by Arakawa Hiromu (荒川弘).

Adapted from the manga "Fullmetal Alchemist" (鋼の錬金術師) by Arakawa Hiromu (荒川弘).

N/A

Genba Shido is the director of Team A in the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). He is excellent at his job. He is a reasonable person, but he often has to make drastic decisions to save lives. He is separated from his wife because of marital problems. They have a daughter. Meanwhile, Urara Asakura is the leader of the Minsei Party. She has strong support from the people. She is married and has a son and daughter. Urara Asakura is expected by many to become Japan's first female prime minster. On the day of the election for the Prime Minister office, an assassination plot on Urara Asakura's life is revealed. Genba Shido must stop the assassination attempt, but his daughter is also kidnapped at the same time.

Inspector Sugishita Ukyo from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Missions Unit makes brilliant deductions and cracks difficult cases with his partner Kaburagi Wataru who used to be a career bureaucrat from the Ministry of Justice.

Shirakawa Keita works as a building inspector. He is a single father, who has raised his 14 year-old-daughter Hitomi alone since his divorce with ex-wife Sendai Yukiko. Yukiko works as a corporate lawyer for a large construction company. After his ex-wife left, Keita placed his daughter as a priority, making him the ideal father. One day, Keita receives a phone call. The caller informs him that "I have your daughter. If you want to save her life, go to your ex-wife." While looking for his daughter, Keita uncovers secrets about his daughter and ex-wife.

Hama Shoko is a 32-year-old single woman and a contract worker. She is not good at romance and does not have a boyfriend, but she wants to get married. For the past 2 years, she has been looking for a man to marry. Still unable to find the right guy, Hama Shoko decides to take a solo trip. While on the airplane, she meets a handsome younger man. During her trip, she happens to meet the younger man again. Hama Shoko lies to him and tells him that she is a married woman. The man tells her "let's have an affair during this trip."

A mysterious international crime organization makes a demand of 900 million yen from the Japanese government for the release of hostages. The group then targets a victory parade of a world sports game to commit indiscriminate terror.

Sawatari Ichiko was supposed to be a high-powered career woman working for the planning department of IT company, Madarame Corporation. But one day, she is suddenly ordered by her company president, Madarame Haruhiko, to go over to Hinode Pro, an entertainment production company that Madarame Corporation has entered into a venture with. This gives Ichiko, an impulsive, arrogant woman who is good at her job, but does not understand people’s feelings, a shock. When she visits Hinode Pro, she discovers that it is a small entertainment production company run by a man called Namiki Masao. Ichiko is alarmed by the dispirited, struggling one-hit singer and third-rate talents. She goes back to Madarame Corporation to protest against her secondment, and offers to quit after Madarame discloses that this is a demotion. However, Ichiko takes the first step toward becoming an artiste manager, which was something she had never expected, on condition that she be reinstated to a core department at Madarame Corporation if she succeeds in turning a declining Hinode Pro around. Believing that she has to find a newcomer in order to rebuild Hinode Pro, she scouts the handsome but rude Sakisaka Ryo who works as a traffic warden at a construction site. Ichiko makes every effort to groom him to be a star. At the first audition, she is disappointed by Ryo who shows no enthusiasm. However, she gives him a taste of being an extra at the Namiki’s suggestion. Ryo becomes conscious of the joy of acting and wins his first role with a line in a drama starring the great actress, Nakazato Reiko. Although Ryo is hostile to Ichiko, he soon rises to become a star and Ichiko learns for the first time the joy of making people feel happy. The two of them keep having conflicts, but are aware that each person is an indispensable partner to the other. Ichiko and Ryo overcome all sorts of trials and set their sights to be the best in the entertainment world. They gradually become “comrades in arms” and start to be drawn to each other.

Nakama Yukie plays the role of Rin, who works at a publishing company and is someone who has not dated in 8 years. She has been too busy working and looking after her siblings after their parents passed away. Her colleagues and boss consider her "difficult" to handle because of her strong-willed personality. One day, she goes to her best friend's "divorce celebration" with Nanako who lives in the same apartment. There, she meets Matsumoto, a dentist, Tada, a researcher at a food manufacturing company, and Shunpei, a part time worker. Few days after the party, all three of them contact her but she has been out of the dating market for so long, she does not know what to do... A unique comedic "love scramble" among 6 men and women who are in serious need of lessons on "how to date." ~ TBS

A touching love story about a girl Kano Masaki (Fukada) who contracted HIV after selling her body in order to earn money for the concert of a famous composer Ishikawa Keigo (Kaneshiro). After the concert, Keigo saw Masaki chasing after his van. She was drenched, and thus Keigo took her to his apartment, where they spent the night.

Nakama is going to play a police woman working at a Community Safety Department called Uehara Choko. Uehara has a very bright and obliging personality and cannot look away when other people are in trouble. She’s living a happy family life together with her husband played Sawamura Ikki, her daughter played by Shida Mirai, and her son played Kimino Yuma. One day she suddenly dies, however, since she’s too worried about her cowardly son, she cannot go to heaven just yet and returns to the world as a ghost. Although she wanted to become a ghost in order to meet her son again, her great skills as a police woman soon make rounds throughout the world of ghosts who now seek her help in order to free them from their regrets. Together with her son, she’s now out to to catch various atrocious criminals in order to settle those old cases. It’s a criminal and human drama in which the characters experience personal growth with each case, mixed with a certain amount of fantasy and comedic elements.

The story takes place during the reign of the Ryukyu Kingdom (19th Century). Nakama plays Mazuru, a young woman who wants to complete her studies despite her gender restrictions, so she takes advantage of the disappearance of her step brother and disguises herself as an Eunuch named Son Neion, and passes the exam to be a royal govenrment's official. This is her first time having to play both a male and female character. Her supporting cast includes Tanihara Shosuke as her lover and Takaoka Saki as her enemy.

A unique duo of a beautiful female magician and a strange physician are back! After two successful TV series, a record high DVD sales record in the newly released drama category, a smash hit theatrical movie, the best selling novelized book, etc., the show has made a come back to a weekly prime time slot. The drama takes place at a remote mountain village bound by convention. In each episode, a beautiful female magician and a strange physician witness various supernatural phenomena far beyond their imagination. Just as the previous series, the two will try to investigate and seek what lies behind these paranormal events and logically prove what the tactful trick would be, only, if any. Now reaching its third series, the drama assures an ever more emphasis on the performance of the unique casting, stronger and original scripts, and more fun delving into the mysteries of this favorite title! -- TV Asahi

Although her father was a great magician, Yamada Naoko is merely a competent magician who utterly lacks showmanship. She has a hard time making a living, and is constantly behind on her rent. That's where Ueda Jiro comes in. Ueda is a professor of physics who is also an author of books debunking the psychic and supernatural. People with problems of a supernatural nature seek out his assistance. But who ends up doing most of the work? Yamada may not be the best magician, but she has a genius for seeing through other people's "tricks," and Ueda uses this to his advantage. Their strange and often very funny partnership is the real reason people get hooked on this series.

Although 23 year old Yamada Naoko (Nakama Yukie) is a "super" magician, she is continously fired and constantly hounded by her landlady for the rent being late. After being fired once again, her boss shows her an ad of a physics professor, a non-believer of all things magical, offering money to anyone who can prove to him that magic is real. Desperately needing the money, Naoko accepts the challenge, which is how she comes to meet Professor Ueda (Abe Hiroshi). Falling prey to her simple magic tricks, Ueda is impressed, and enlists Naoko to help him uncover the tricks behind a local cult. Their hilarious antics, along with those of police officer Yabe, leads them onto further mysteries, all with tricks needing to be solved and revealed!

From the 2011 drama, Utsukushi Rinjin, Nakama Yukie reprises the character Saki. This time round, as Saki Amihama, she will be targeting men. With the facade of an angel, she draws men to her, only to lead them to a destructive end. Like a moth to the flame... but where is the line drawn between the saint and the devil? ~ Fuji TV Saki works as a nurse at the pediatrics department of a general hospital. The young patients and all men love her because of her angelic smile, her perfect cooking skills, and the sheer beauty she radiates in everything she does. However, none of them knows of her amazing ability to ruin other people’s lives while keeping her hands clean all the time. Her targets this time are the reporter of a major magazine (Miura Shohei) who is searching for his older sister, a famous lawyer (Hagiwara Masato) who is fighting for justice, and her main target – the devoted husband and board chairman of said hospital, played by Takashima Masanobu. Hamada Naomi (Uchida Yuki) is a female reporter who becomes suspicious of Saki’s behavior. ~ tokyohive

One day, a middle-aged man, Fujimoto Makoto, is standing on a train platform, about to jump in front of a train. Nakashiro Kana and Tasaki Shota both happen to be on the same platform, and sensing what is about to happen, they quickly pull him back to safety. There’s a reason why Kana and Shota realized Makoto’s intentions, they both have the kind of emotional scars that can’t be put into words. Even after so much pain, through a series of e-mails, they've become attracted to one another and slowly learn to open up their hearts once again.

Mizusawa Sakura is the ultimate “good listener”. In the morning, she hears the voices of listeners as the DJ of a small FM radio network. In the afternoon, she lends a ear to residents’ complaints at the inquiry counter of Komagome Chuo Police Precinct’s Community Safety Division. At night, she obtains information from regular customers at the small restaurant which her grandmother Ume, a former police woman, runs. Once a case occurs, Sakura will hide her identity and go undercover. She is actually a special investigator under the orders of “Iron Lady” Igarashi Kyoko, the chief of the police precinct. Sakura partners the hot-blooded detective Takeuchi Masato whom she frequently encounters at investigation scenes, and unlocks the mysteries of the cases.

Half a year has passed and Shirokin Gakuen has closed down. Yamaguchi Kumiko (Nakama Yukie) finds herself a teacher of a few young kids who don't really benefit much from her style of teaching. Through some twist of fate, she is offered a job as a teacher in Kurogin Gakuen. She becomes the teacher of a delinquent 3D class which make her previous students look like angels. In order to protect her job, she must again hide her true identity — the fact that she is the 4th generation of the Oedo Family, a prominent yakuza group.

Half a year has passed and Shirokin Gakuen has closed down. Yamaguchi Kumiko (Nakama Yukie) finds herself a teacher of a few young kids who don't really benefit much from her style of teaching. Through some twist of fate, she is offered a job as a teacher in Kurogin Gakuen. She becomes the teacher of a delinquent 3D class which make her previous students look like angels. In order to protect her job, she must again hide her true identity — the fact that she is the 4th generation of the Oedo Family, a prominent yakuza group.

Born to a poor family in Yamanashi prefecture, in the year of 1903 at the age of 10, Muraoka Hanako was accepted by a Missionary school in Tokyo. It was her father's Ando Kippei, greatest wish that his daughter gets a higher education. The Missionary school was attended by daughters from noble families, and as a charity case, Hanako was reminded by her father to never be inferior to her rich schoolmates. As the classes were carried out in English, Hanako faced a culture shock when she started school. Unable to understand the teachers nor able to grasp the conversation of her peers, Hanako resolved to work really hard at her studies.This drama follows Hanako from her childhood, through her years at the missionary school, to her life as a school teacher and finally as the translator of L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables".

Born to a poor family in Yamanashi prefecture, in the year of 1903 at the age of 10, Muraoka Hanako was accepted by a Missionary school in Tokyo. It was her father's Ando Kippei, greatest wish that his daughter gets a higher education. The Missionary school was attended by daughters from noble families, and as a charity case, Hanako was reminded by her father to never be inferior to her rich schoolmates. As the classes were carried out in English, Hanako faced a culture shock when she started school. Unable to understand the teachers nor able to grasp the conversation of her peers, Hanako resolved to work really hard at her studies.This drama follows Hanako from her childhood, through her years at the missionary school, to her life as a school teacher and finally as the translator of L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables".

Naoko Yamada a a self-proclaimed “super magician” repeatedly finds herself enlisted to help a self-proclaimed “genius physicist” and skeptic named Jiro Ueda as he attempts to expose fraudulent spiritualists and others who seem to have mysterious powers.

Three of Japan’s top veteran samurai stars shine in this colour remake of the classic Kobayashi film, Samurai Rebellion. The roles made famous by Mifune Toshiro and Nakadai Tatsuya are taken over by the ever popular Tamura Masakazu and Matsudaira Ken, with the surprise addition of Lady Snowblood’s Kaji Meiko as Suga, the shrewish wife of master swordsman Sasahara Isaburo. Staying true to the original storyline lends authenticity to this new and beautifully executed version. Lord Matsudaira of the Aizu clan has sent his favourite concubine to marry Sasahara’s son Yogoro after she had borne the lord a second son. Bloody violence will erupt when the lord wants her back!

The story follows a family of Japanese immigrants who crossed over to America 99 years ago. Kusanagi plays both the young Hiramatsu Chokichi (later taken over by Nakai) and his son, Ichiro. When the war breaks out the Japanese immigrants face racism and segregation. Ichiro pledges his alliance to America and gets sent to Europe, second son Jiro stays back with Ichiro's beloved Shinobu (who he has a crush on) and tries to protect his parents' farm. Their two sisters Shizu and Sachie are sent back to Japan and have to experience the horrors of war, one in Hiroshima and the other in Okinawa.

Sawatari Goro now works at Akado High School as a vice principal. Although the head director of the school board speficically orders him to handle the problematic class 3-D, the students are just too much for him. So Sawatari goes far away to a southern island to search for Yankumi, and convince her to work for Akado. Yankumi accepts the offer, only to find that her class (again) is full of punks, where two rival groups of students are always at each other's throats. Will Yankumi's strong belief in students and teaching work this time?

The 45th NHK Taiga Drama is Komyo ga Tsuji.

Kazutoyo lived during the end of the Sengoku period (1546-1605). He was the first feudal lord of the fief of Tosa on the island of Shikoku. He served Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Chiyo (1557-1617) was his wife, and was known in history for her dedication and devotion to her husband (like Matsu was to Toshiie in Toshiie to Matsu). She is the daughter of a samurai who served the feudal lord Asai.

Known as the "greatest samurai novel in Japan", this drama is based on the novel. The tragic romance of a princess and the adventure of eight heroic samurai.

"Please tell me who I really am."

This e-mail message was sent by Mika Kimoto, an editor working at a publisher in Daiba, Tokyo.

Coming from a wealthy family, Mika has always had everything she has ever wanted and more. She is a third-generation Korean living in Japan. She loves her job, and her Japanese boyfriend is a doctor.

There's one thing that bothers Mika though... Her father Masao is very conscious of his ethnic heritage and will allow Mika to marry only a Korean. When her relationship falls apart because of her father's interference, she just happens to post the above message on a mobile phone dating service.

Ryosuke, a blue-collar warehouse worker at Shinagawa Pier, replies to Mika's message.

Daiba and Shinagawa Pier are separated by Tokyo Bay. Mika is a career woman working at a major firm. Ryosuke lives a meager life doing manual labor at a warehouse. There seems to be nothing in common between the two. Still, destiny brings them together.

One day Mika happens to find her late mother Yuri's diary. Written within is the tale of Yuri's concealed relationship with a Japanese man before she married Masao. Mika finds out her mother's hidden past and her passion for the man she loved. Without knowing it, she is about to follow the same path as her mother.

The 42nd NHK Taiga Drama is MUSASHI. Many Japanese history buffs are familiar with The Book of Five Rings written by Miyamoto Musashi in the 17th century. Musashi's treatise on strategy and the way to lead instantly became the business executive's bible when the translated version hit the bookstores more than three hundred years later.

In 2003, the story of this legendary swordsman-philosopher-painter comes to life in the NHK Taiga Drama MUSASHI. Based on the famous biography written by Yoshikawa Eiji, this taiga drama boasts a list of stars that reads like a Who's Who of screen and television.

Orphaned before he was ten years old, Musashi (his real name is Takezo, so you'll hear his childhood friends call him by that name) grows up skilled in the martial arts. During the Battle of Sekigahara, he fights on the side of the losing Toyotomi forces, but eludes the enemy as they hunt down the vanquished soldiers. He then spends years wandering the countryside mastering the sword, becoming a stronger samurai. As his fame spreads throughout the nation, men seek him out to test their skills against him--most notably Sasaki Kojiro who faces Musashi in the ultimate Duel at Ganryujima.

The film takes place 30 years prior to the events of Ring, and depicts the life of 19-year-old Sadako Yamamura, the antagonist of previous films. In this film, her role shifts to that of a protagonist.

Two young men have a special ability: they can sense ghost spirits. With this special ability they try to solve mysteries / crimes.