Hatoko no umi

Chiritotechin

July 2025 •Japanese

The 77th NHK Asadora is Chiritotechin. Location includes Fukui prefecture. This renzoku is about Wada Kiyomi (referred to as Kiyomi-B), a girl brought up in Fukui who moves to Osaka in search of her soul. In Osaka, Kiyomi-B becomes enchanted with rakugo, a Japanese traditional form of comic storytelling, and pursues a career in rakugo. In the summer of 1982, Kiyomi-B and her family move to Obama of Fukui, her father's hometown. Kiyomi-B's grandmother and uncle welcome the family, but Shotaro the grandfather does not allow Masanori to take over the Wakasa lacquer chopsticks making. One day, Kiyomi-B listens to rakugo at Shotaro's factory and becomes fond of it. Shotaro and Kiyomi-B become close through rakugo.

Anpan

July 2025 •Japanese

At the beginning of the Showa era, there was a girl running through the town of Kochi at an incredible speed. Her name was Asada Nobu, also known as 'Hachikin Onobu'. Meanwhile, Yanai Takashi, who lost his father to illness at a young age, was taken in by his uncle and met Nobu at the school he transferred to. As the footsteps of war approached, Nobu, who was attending a women's normal school, had become a fanatical militarist girl like the others around her. Soon, the war began, and Takashi was sent to war. Taku lost his younger brother, Chihiro, in the war, and Nobu also lost the person she loved. After graduating from a women's school, Nobu's values had all changed during the war, and she decided that she had to figure out for herself what was right, so she got a job as the first female reporter at a newspaper company in Kochi.

Welcome Home, Mone

July 2025 •Japanese

Born in September of 1995, Momone Nagaura lived with her parents, grandfather, and sister in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. After failing her college entrance exams, she went to live in Tome City with an acquaintance of her grandfather's. Momone's life changes when she meets a popular weather forecaster from Tokyo, who teaches her how weather forecasts can predict the future. She decides to study to become a weather forecaster.

Natsuzora

July 2025 •Japanese

Okuhara Natsu was born in Tokyo in 1937. In 1945, she loses both parents to war and becomes an orphan, but her father’s comrade, Shibata Takeo, takes her in and moves to Tokachi in Hokkaido. In an unfamiliar land surrounded by unfamiliar people, Natsu feels lost at first, but surrounded by Tokachi’s vast nature and its strong, yet compassionate people, she grows up to be a strong girl. When Natsu enters elementary school, she meets Yamada Tenyo who draws lovely pictures of horses. Tenyo tells her that in America, animation in which pictures move is becoming popular, Natsu’s curiosity is piqued. Upon graduating high school, Natsu goes to Tokyo to look up her brother, and takes a jump into the world of animation.

Amachan

July 2025 •Japanese

Aki Amano, a high-school girl from Tokyo moves to the Sanriku Coast in the Tohoku region to become a female diver. She becomes a local idol, then returns to Tokyo to try to become a real idol, and finally returns to Tohoku to help revitalize the area after the Great East Japan earthquake.

The Tiger and Her Wings

July 2025 •Japanese

In the early Showa era, Japan’s first women’s law school opens, and the protagonist, Inotsume Tomoko (Ito Sairi), gains nationwide attention as one of the first female lawyers in the country. However, after facing wartime Japan’s harsh realities and losing everything, she becomes a judge with her legal knowledge and dedicates herself to establishing the family court. She stands passionately for the hardships that politics and economics cannot solve.

Manten

July 2025 •Japanese

Honmamon

July 2025 •Japanese

Wakaba

July 2025 •English

The story is about a young woman who becomes a landscape gardener following her father's wishes. Wakaba, born and brought up in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, lived happily with her parents and younger brother until the Great Hanshin Earthquake shook and destroyed the city in 1995. In the disaster, Wakaba loses her father, who was an architect and moves with her mother and brother to Obi, old castle town in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, where her grandmother lives with her uncle and aunt. Living in Obi's rich natural environment, Wakaba learns that plants can heal people's hearts. She makes a resolution to return to Kobe and reconstruct the city abundant in greenery.

Massan

July 2025 •Japanese

Massan is based on the lives of Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, a Scotswoman Taketsuru met while studying abroad.

Kokoro

July 2025 •Japanese

Suenaga Kokoro, an international flight attendant, lives with her mother and grandmother who operate a traditional restaurant in a lively downtown district of Tokyo where customs and traditions run deep and neighbors know each other like a big family.

Oshin

July 2025 •Japanese

Oshin is a Japanese serialized morning television drama, which aired on broadcaster NHK from April 4, 1983 to March 31, 1984. The series follows the life of Shin Tanokura during the Meiji period up to the early 1980s. Shin was called "Oshin", which is an archaic Japanese cognomen.

Nonchan no yume

July 2025 •Japanese

The 40th NHK Asadora starring Fujita Tomoko. It is about a woman who struggles to survive after World War II and starts a magazine.

Hassai Sensei

July 2025 •Japanese

The 39th NHK Asadora drama is Hassai-sensei. A novice teacher in 1930s Osaka learns that there is more to education than mere instruction. Though her tenure is interrupted by first marriage and later World War II, she begins a quest for "ideal education" after the war.

Chotchan

July 2025 •Japanese

The 38th NHK Asadora. Based on the autobiography of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's mother.

Miyako no kaze

July 2025 •Japanese

The 37th NHK Asadora. A woman from Kyoto moves to Nara and runs a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and then enters the fashion industry.

Ichiban Daiko

July 2025 •Japanese

The 35th NHK Asadora about a man who enters the world of popular theater.

Kokoru wa Itsumo Ramune Iro

July 2025 •Japanese

The 33rd NHK Asadora. Starring Eisaku Shindou as a man who loves manzai (a traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japanese culture). Average rating of 40.2% Based on the life of a famous two-man comedy act writer, Akita Minoru, who loved comedy more than anything. His life itself was full of wit and humor, love and friendship.

Scarlet

July 2025 •Japanese

Born in 1937 in Osaka as the eldest daughter, Kawahara Kimiko moves to Shigaraki with her family at the age of 9. She works to support her family from a young age. Eventually, she jumps into the male world of pottery and becomes a pioneer of female ceramic arts. After marrying her husband who is also involved in ceramics and owning her own kiln, she raises her two children while struggling to create unique ware.

Karin

July 2025 •Japanese

A young woman Chiaki whose family runs an old miso company in Nagano Prefecture, the only daughter of old traditional family. For generations, they were making soybean paste for living. Now she needs to take over this business and rebuild it. She lives through the hardships of postwar Japan.