Taeko Asano

The 74th NHK Asadora Drama is Junjo Kirari, which means something along the lines of "pure-hearted Kirari." The story is set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture in the era around the Second World War. When the story opens in 1928, the heroine, Sakurako, is a very active seven-year-old girl. Indeed, even in the first episode she exhibits her confidence and enthusiasm. But above all else, Sakurako is interested in becoming a jazz pianist, and music features extensively in the plot.

A rich, handsome businessman, Hokuto, proposes marriage to Chiwa, whose father has a large debt. Hokuto apparently has a secret reason for marrying Chiwa. Will this marriage work out?

Kanji Takizawa worked diligently at a bank, successfully reaching the position of branch manager. Despite the fact that his conversation with his wife Mariko was dwindling and there was a growing distance between him and his young, unmarried daughter, Misaki, he had come to accept his peaceful life. One day, Kanji gets loaned out to a client company for an unjustifiable reason. Shocked, Kanji lies to his family that he was going on a business trip to Switzerland, where he meets and finds a kindred spirit in Shiori Meguro. Meanwhile, Mariko suspects that her husband may be having an affair, and finds herself falling in forbidden love with her daughter’s fiancé, Haruki Hino.

Love Generation revolves around the relationship of the two leading protagonists, Katagiri Teppei and Uesugi Riko, who begin their relationship as squabbling colleagues before falling in love.

An arson took it all away from Akiyama Kanon seven years ago. Her parents died in that fire, her brother was arrested as the prime suspect and her carefree life disappeared from that instant. She was shunned by the town as the sister of a murderer, yet she believes in her brother's innocence and often pays him visits with words of encouragement. As life gets harder when nobody is willing to give her a job, Kanon decides to try her luck in the city and there she meets the man of her destiny...

Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters problems every step of the way. Fortunately for Ichi, she is also a gifted swordswoman and carries a lethal blade within her walking stick.

The mini-series revolves around the harem of a shogun in the Edo Period in Japan. The women jostle and compete with one another and with their lord and on occasion even wield more power than their master.

Follow the life of Michiru Aida, a beauty parlor assistant who returns to Tokyo after 4 years. Bullied by her seniors at work and abused by her boyfriend, she is reunited with her best friend during high school, Ruka Kishimoto, a skilled motocross racer. Takeru, a make-up artist, is introduced to Ruka by her housemate, Eri and thus begin a journey of friendship.

Yuri Maroev is a secret agent and assassin from the Ural Republic sent along with his brother on a mission to Japan. Once in Japan, he meets systems analyst Mashiro Rieru and uses her high-level security access to get top-secret information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His pretense of romance turns into genuine feelings of love, as Rieru falls deeper into the intricacies of Yuri's fateful covert operations.

Masaki is fond of a music producer named Keigo, to get to his concert she ends up selling her body. She end up meeting him after the concert and fall in love with him, and he is interested in her. How ever Masaki has gotten HIV during the time she sold her body... How will this affect her relationship with Keigo?

Morimura Tomomi is a housewife scorned by her husband and two sons, and yet she continues to protect the family. On her 46th birthday, she leaves home in disgust and embarks on a 1,200 km journey. It is Tomomi’s first time driving onto the highway and she speeds along to the west. On the road, she encounters a series of traumatising episodes. She detects her husband’s affair, is faced with a truck driver who mistakes her for a prostitute housewife, and finally her car gets stolen. While Tomomi is at a loss, a good-looking young man and an elderly person give her a ride, and she arrives in Nagasaki. As she meets various people in this town which was once transformed into a wasteland because of the atomic bomb, she becomes aware of a “wilderness” within her and starts to explore the path to rebirth

A new kind of melodrama about a man that wants children, but can't have them with his wife; and a single-woman that wants to have a child of her own. It is also about what children mean to both sexes.

Sakurazawa Jun is 27 years old and excels in her job, is fashionable, has many hobbies and lives a very fulfilled life. Her life is driven by her primary motto "love is just a waste of time!" and she has no experience in romantic relationships or with men. Before her appears Nagamine Shuma, an incredibly handsome chef in training who knows exactly what women want to hear and feel. He's someone who lives in the moment, lets people come and go, is cool and not serious about love. For some reason, Shuma is intrigued by Jun and decides to approach her...

Kiwako Nonomiya is devastated after Takehiro Akiyama, the married man she has been having an affair with, manipulates her into getting an abortion by promising to marry her and then refusing to divorce his wife. Kiwako then learns of Takehiro's wife's pregnancy. One morning, while Takehiro and his wife Etsuko are away, Kiwako sneaks into their home to get a look at their six-month-old child. Without a thought for the consequences, she carries the baby away. Kiwako then raises the child as her own, while being a fugitive from the law.

No description available.

Maejima Satsuki works part-time at a garden centre in Tokyo. While her aspiration is to be a voice talent, she is on the verge of giving up. Satsuki has never been serious about what she does. It is the same with romance. However, she meets Morishita Riku, who is a garden designer. After a terrarium that she made captured his attention, Satsuki ends up helping out with a garden project he has undertaken. Before long, the two of them become a couple. Then, the gardener, Shiraishi Yuma, joins the project, and Riku is greatly shaken. Satsuki is unaware of their reunion. The feelings of the three of them intertwine as they focus on completing the garden. Satsuki eventually makes a choice.

For 13 years, Yuria Aikawa's whereabouts have been unknown. All of a sudden, she reemerges and returns to her family. What awaits Yuria is a world that have completely changed.

Ritsu was abandoned by his mother Reiko when he was little, so now he belongs in the lower social strata. One day, Ritsu gets involved in a case and his head is severely injured, so he can die at anytime. Convinced she abandoned him due to poverty, Ritsu attempts to find his mother and be good to her before his death. But when he learns that she is leading a happy life instead, with her pianist son Satoru, he decides to take revenge on his mother. Ritsu then meets Rinka, a girl whom he happened to help in the past, and discovers she is Satoru’s childhood friend.

There are all kinds of people living in the back street tenement houses in old Edo. One of them is Ashiya Dosan, the descendant of an Onmyoji who made a name for himself back in the Heian period. Unfortunately, unlike his forefathers, Dosan has not made much of a living off the fortune telling and amulet peddling that he does.

A story about a talented child actress who wins back her dream after retiring from acting. Keito was once a popular child actress, but she had shut herself away from society for 10 years after a traumatic acting incident. She is now 17 years old and incidentally enrolls to a free school for dropouts where she makes true friends. Together, they build trust and find the meaning of life. --NHK