Asian Drama

Season 2 of this drama starts off with Machi being married to Dai Yashiro, while Kenji Rusudo is a rival real estate agent.

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.

Surgeon Daimon Michiko is sent to Totei University Hospital this time. Although it reigns as the top university hospital in the country, the hospital’s reputation has suffered greatly from various cover-ups, medical malpractice and fighting factions. Furthermore, the person who has snatched the seat of the new hospital director with the plan of reestablishing the hospital’s brand and gaining great power, is none other than the strategist Hiruma Shigekatsu, who has a longstanding grudge against Michiko. At Totei University Hospital, the medical departments have weakened as the administrative department increases control. Only doctors who have powerful brands are kept to run the hospital, which has transformed into a mere business organisation. What will Michiko stand up against in a power game rife in the healthcare setting?

Nishiuchi Mariya stars as a novice concierge in a luxury hotel who strives to see her customers smile. The heroine with never-give-up attitude who doesn't say "no" to customers tries her very best to solve problems with support from her seniors. The drama brings heart-warming one-off episodes every week to viewers.

Toko has finally got her dream job as concierge at "Hotel Vollmond". One day, fashion designer and customer, Sachi, requests Toko to change the flowers at her party venue, which Toko promises to do without due consideration. With the help of her senior, Honjo, she manages to keep her rash promise, but Honjo starts to question why on earth Washio chose Toko as concierge in the first place. Toko, then, gets enthusiastic about supporting a customer who plans to propose to his girlfriend.

A special drama commemorating the 80th anniversary of NHK's broadcasting service. The story is about two sisters who meet each other again after living separated in Japan and Brazil for 70 years. In 1934, Haru and her family emigrated from Hokkaido to Brazil. Haru's younger sister Natsu, however, was left behind in Japan because of an eye disease. 70 years later, Haru visits Japan and locates the whereabouts of Natsu but the younger sister, who thinks she was abandoned by the family, rejects Haru. After a while, the two find out that both wrote numbers of letters to the other though the letters have been left undelivered to the addressees. Through the discovered letters, the sisters learn each other's life; Haru lived in Brazil as a member of an immigrant-laborer family surviving various difficulties while Natsu lived in Japan through the Second World War and postwar economic growth depending on herself and managing a business. The drama portrays the separated sisters' lives full of ups and downs as well as their family ties, asking the meaning of "homeland" and "family."

Taisho era: The son and heir to a liquor store with a passion for making whiskey travels alone to Scotland to learn more. The drama shows a unique way of viewing Japanese virtues, and cross-cultural hospitality, while gaining an understanding of the differences between Scotland and Japan. The drama offers a unique view of growing up "Japanophile."

There are too many unforgivable people in this world. I shall defeat them in the name of God ~ Sana.Sana is a mysterious woman... in her body lives a female ninja who served a bushido from the Sengokujidai (Warring States era). When the bomb exploded, Sana suddenly finds herself in the year 2014. Murata Seiko stumbles upon Sana, and taking pity on her, takes her to her home to stay. Actually, Seiko's daughter, Yukari, had mysteriously disappeared 24 years ago. Until today, Seiko has not had a satisfactory answer with regards to her daughter's disappearance.

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.

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.