Masayo Umezawa

An American actor in Tokyo struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese 'rental family' agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients' worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.

High school student, Yo, lived with her father, Nao, after her mother, Sachiyo, left the family when she was very young. However, their life together came to an end and they started a new life as a family of four with her father's second marriage partner, Miko, and her stepdaughter, four-year-old Hinata. She confides in Riku, who belongs to the same art club as Yo, about her confusion about this new life. Yo, who has been developing curiosity for her biological mother, Sachiyo, promises to go with Riku to Sachiyo's art exhibition.

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.

In Mahoro, the fictional suburb of Tokyo, Tada works as a general problem solver for hire. One day, former classmate Gyoten appears unannounced. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. With no explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Tada's home. Eventually, Tada accepts Gyoten as his assistant and together they become involved in various cases concerning an assortment of people from different walks of life.

After his father-in-law Makoto fractures his leg, young professional Yuta travels from his home in Tokyo to a rural town in Kyushu to take care of the older man and help out in his old-fashioned photo studio.

A spin-off from popular Japanese TV series "Galileo". Episode XX tells the story of female detective Utsumi Kaoru's final case before she went to Oklahoma for further training.

Following the comic series and the subsequent television serial of the same name, and featuring the same cast, a young and relatively inexperienced man comes across a woman during his working day and sparks fly.

Set one year after drama series "Overprotected Kahoko." Kahoko is busy running her daycare center "Kahoko House" and also doing housework. Things at work and home are not going smoothly. "Kahoko House" is in financial difficulties and she isn't very good with housework. Her relationship with her husband Hajime is troubled and his career as a painter has been unsuccessful to date. Can Kahoko turn things around?

On Mihama, one of Tokyo's outlying islands, Shinji witnesses the rape of his girlfriend and middle-school classmate, Haruka, then commits an irreversible crime. But the following day, the island is besieged by a tidal wave which wipes out everything. Twenty-five years later, Shinji has a wife and daughter. A childhood friend, Tasuku, presents himself to Shinji and discloses the real truth of his hidden past. Shinji will have to try and protect Haruka again.

Working long hours in the emergency room, nurse Kana Aoshima befriends musician and frequent hospital patient Shogo Amami. Shogo's therapy visits for his muteness and blindness happen to frequently coincide with Kana's shift, which enables the nurse to get to know the handsome artist well enough to start falling in love with him. Fate intercedes, however, when Shogo is killed after being hit by a car - a development that utterly crushes Kana's will to live. Shogo's spirit is transported to heaven, where it is given the chance to return to Earth to assist Kana through her grieving and to renew her sense of faith in the world - with the only caveat being he cannot reveal his identity to Kana.

In 1959, a body of a flight attendant of an international airline is found, strangled. Detective Rokuro Fujisawa takes charge of the investigation with a young detective Ichimura and his investigations lead him to Father Tolbeck as a suspect. But the police are forced to move very discreetly as the time was right after the Second World War, when a sensitive situation that involves Western people and religion is likely to become an international issue. The investigation leads to an unexpected discloser of a shadowy business behind the church that reflects the uncertainty of the time.

Higashigaito Yutaka is transferred to the Bangkok branch of Eastern Airlines. In three months, he will marry Michiko, a relative of the airline's founder, and though he doesn't love her, he knows he could be CEO one day if they wed. In Thailand, Yutaka meets Touko at a bar and is instantly drawn to her. His relationship with her only intensifies as the wedding date approaches. Eventually, he decides to break up with her and calls Michiko in front of her. Touko is disappointed, and the next day she leaves for New York. Yutaka and Michiko reunite in Thailand and proceed with their wedding. Twenty-five years later, Yutaka and Michiko are married with two sons. But Yutaka still harbors memories of Touko in his heart. Yutaka visits Bangkok on business and goes to the Oriental Hotel where he had stayed with Touko-and finds she is now in charge of VIP guests there. They realize their love for each other remains, but reality pulls them apart once again.

The sexy female pickpocket and the army of perverts are in a gorgeous finger fight! A tranquil downtown of Tokyo. A town full of humanity. The residents of Hanakisou, a dilapidated apartment building, are all perverts. One day, they got off the train and were surprised to find their wallets had been slashed. But when they caught the pickpocket, they were even more surprised. It was a cute female office worker....

Tanaka Yoshio, an ordinary salaryman, is always eager to impress his girlfriend Reiko, but his wallet is always empty. His only lifeline is his credit card, but one day he forgets the repayment date and finds himself in a tight spot. With no other options, Tanaka resorts to taking out a cash advance.

A young couple is devastated when their son is killed by a falling tree during a windstorm. As the distraught father begins to look for answers into his son’s death, what appears to be a tragic accident turns out to have been the result of multiple blunders by multiple people.

Two kids, fourteen-year-old Eriko and her thirteen-year-old brother Daigo, suddenly find themselves trapped in a parallel universe. Most things are the same as in their own world, but their parents are missing from home and are only contactable when using one particular phonecard.

Kota and Yoko have known each other for 17 years. They finally get married and Yoko becomes pregnant. During her pregnancy, Yoko feels ill and gets a checkup. She learns that she has terminal cancer. Yoko is able to give birth and they try to smile everyday until her very last day.

Kako (Fumi Nikaido) is a female high school student. She lives at a restaurant run by her family in Kitashinagawa, Tokyo. Unexpectedly, Kako's aunt, Mikiko (Kyoko Koizumi), suddenly appears. Kako thought her aunt died 18 years ago. Her whole family is embarrassed by Mikiko's appearance due to a past incident caused by Mikiko. Kako is also irritated when Mikiko lives in her room. They spend the summer together.

13-year old Chiaki Matsumoto enters middle school with two rules for herself: 1. Always stay cool and 2. Don’t make friends. Having suffered bullying in elementary school, Chiaki chooses a path of isolation, building emotional walls and deciding to live a tough, solitary life. One day, by chance, she meets Kiki, a flamboyant and mysterious individual who transcends age and gender. As Chiaki begins to interact with Kiki, she slowly opens her heart, learning to trust again.

One evening, a married couple comes to the Itami Law Office. Narumi Suzumura, six months pregnant, and her husband Takuya have come to ask Itami to take the case of Narumi's mother, Kimiko Torii, indicted for the murder of her second husband, company president Takefumi Torii. Kimiko married Takefumi 19 years ago, making him Narumi's stepfather. The couple are questioning whether Kimiko had the intent to kill...

University student Keisuke returns to his hometown during his summer holiday and takes a part-time job at a run-down movie theater. However, his boss Ruka, a projectionist who lives on the premises, has not set foot outside in three years, and always falls into a deep depression on Mondays. Keisuke feels himself becoming attracted to the mysterious Ruka, but...

Izumi Sakuragi is a new police sergeant with the Special Investigations Office, which was set up within the Metropolitan Police in November last year. The new investigation team uses DNA analysis and the latest in forensics science to investigate cold cases as well as cases suspected to involve missing persons.

Hiroto Miyama is an unconventional young lawyer who dances to his own tune and gets a little obsessive. For one thing, he’s only interested in criminal cases, and he will never give up in his pursuit of the truth even if offers only a 0.1% chance of being discovered. Japan’s 99.9% criminal case conviction rate leads the world, attesting to a “highly reliable” judicial system. In other words, once a crime suspect is indicted, prosecutor arguments tend to be accepted hook, line and sinker. In the face of those 99.9% odds, there’s no money in being a defense lawyer specializing in criminal cases, but for Miyama, that’s where the interest and kernels of truth lie. From unexpected places, the mold-breaking Miyama stakes his reputation on a prayer of a chance as he clashes with hotshot lawyers who’ll go to any lengths to win in this gloriously fun, legal mystery.

Oomae Haruko is an A+ Temp worker who never cracks a smile or minces words, and leaves work on the dot. But her cynical nature indicates she has something painful to hide. Satonaka Kensuke has just been promoted to head S&F's new Marketing Division. Saddled with a rag-tag group of subordinates, he is struggling to lift his division off the ground. When Oomae is placed in Kensuke's department, she finds herself doing more work than she's ever done before. This is a timely drama that examines the different attitudes toward temp workers and regular employees, and the ways to overcome frictions in interpersonal relationships. This follows an October report on labor conditions by the Labor Ministry, which showed that, after regulations were relaxed, the proportion of regular employees to Temps had doubled compared to that of eight years ago.

Akira Shimazaki lives with his middle school student son. He used to work as a bodyguard, but, due to an incident, he now works as a security guard at a construction site. The private security company where he works establishes a new bodyguard division. Hiding his past as a bodyguard, Akira Shimazaki begins work as a novice bodyguard.

A down-and-out salaryman, fired and divorced, lands a bizarre job requiring him to fake a marriage with a stranger to save the world.

Miwa Kubota is a 29-year old movie fanatic who just got fired from her dead-end job. She saw that her favorite actor, the world-renowned Takahashi Yakai, is looking for a housekeeper. Even though she is totally unqualified, she goes there anyway. When she saw the new hire get into an accident outside his door, Miwa steps in to become the "pretend" housekeeper for her idol.

College student Kahoko is the quintessential overprotected child born out of today's Japanese society. Shielded by her parents, Kahoko grew up completely pampered and became somewhat of a miraculously naive "test tube human." She is 21 years old and about to start working for a company, but she has never slept away from home, had a part time job, chosen her own clothes, or even ridden a train alone. Kahoko has had her picture taken, but she has never taken a picture herself. Now, Kahoko is about to step out of her germ-free isolation pod and into the germ-infested world. It won't be long until she realizes, "I'm different from everybody else!" She has been her mother's best friend all her life and her father can't live without her. As they become emotionally unstable from the changes that Kahoko goes through, their family begins to fall apart. That's when Kahoko herself and the people around her begin to see the strength that hides deep within.

Keisuke Yoshimaru is a screenwriter, but instead of working, he is responsible for all household chores. On the other hand, Keisuke's wife, Nami, is a popular novel writer under the name "Ririko Kōsaka". Nami is the breadwinner with outstanding fame and income. Keisuke is somehow satisfied with his current life, but, one day, the main writer of a prime-time drama suddenly drops out, and Keisuke was given the opportunity to write again. Although Keisuke starts writing with full of expectations, he begins to be swayed by various problems.

The time is the early 1800s. Keijiro Moriguchi loses his only daughter, Michiyo, in an unfortunate incident just before his wedding ceremony, and adopts Konosuke, who was supposed to be his son-in-law. Three years later, he hands over the family estate to Konosuke, welcomes his wife, Satsuki, and retires, becoming a dormitory (manager) of a merchant's villa in Negishi Village. Keijiro's second life begins in order to heal...

A forty-year-old man has married a pretty woman 20 years younger than he is. However, with their marriage as a turning point, his fate dramatically changes. The mother of his newly-wed bride is his old lover! What is worse, the mother voluntarily moves herself in with the newly weds. Their newly married life, which would have been honey-sweet, is becoming a roller-coaster ride. This is a comical drama portraying the triangle with reason of these three people. --TBS

54-year-old Mikawa Meiko is a single woman who quit her office job to run a small donut shop. One night, she picks up a wallet that has fallen at her feet and takes it to the police station, but the handsome young man who owns it says, "Thank you, Auntie," and she is shocked by the power of those words. Faced with the reality of being an "auntie," Meiko confronts one wall after another of "aging."