Asian Drama

Silent poor... the poor and needy whose cries for help are drowned out in today's busling society. Their existence is spreading rapidly across the nation, and as such, the government decided to set up a body to help them. Nationwide, there are now people called Community Social Workers (CSW), and their jobs are to attend to the poor and needy. One such person is Satomi Ryo, and she works at the Shitamachi area's Council of Welfare. The people that she meets in her busy working life are people afflicted with juvenile dementia, those who have shunned society and locked themselves up in their rooms, the homeless... generally people who are in despair over life and the fate dealt to them. Ryo herself had been down the lonely road before, and as a way to pull herself out of her depression, she decided to work as a CSW, in order to help others like her. She strongly believes that one can always start all over again, and it is her belief that helps her to move forward in life.

The drama is based on the best-selling same-titled novel by Shigematsu Kiyoshi. It tells the story of how a widower brought up his only son, after the death of his beloved wife. Ichikawa Yasuo, or Yasu as he is known, is a baka, with no paper qualifications to his name. However, like all normal parents, he dotes on his only son, Akira. Having grown up without his parents around, Yasu himself knows next to nothing of what parenting is about. With his wife, Misako, by his side, he had spent many happy days together with his little family.

However, when Akira was 3 years old, Misako passed away suddenly from an accident. Heart-broken, and filled with regrets, Yasu pulled himself together, in order to care for his little son. Together with the help of his friends, Yasu overcame it all, and Akira grew up to be a bright and successful young man.

"With nothing but love for his son... that's all there is"

Kanbe Takeru chooses to remain in the Special Missions Division, but he seems to continue to keep a distance from his direct superior, Sugishita Ukyo. One day, the dead body of the popular female novelist, Mizumoto Shoko, is found in her own home. The possibility of murder fuelled by a grudge is high from the situation at the crime scene, and a male stalker emerges in the line of investigation. However, Ukyo focuses his attention on a missing section from a document package for a new book that Shoko was working on. It is eventually determined that Shoko was attempting to write a novel with an environmental theme which is completely different from her style of writing so far. Ukyo and Kanbe try to get information from the employees at a trading conglomerate that Shoko had interviewed.