Matsushita Nao to star in FujiTV Spring 2016 drama "Hayako-sensei, Kekkon surutte hontou desuka?"

Matsushita Nao will be starring in the upcoming FujiTV Spring 2016 drama "Hayako-sensei, Kekkon surutte hontou desuka?" (Teacher Hayako, is it true that you are getting married?) which will begin its run from April in the Thursdays 10pm timeslot. The drama which is based on the same-titled 4-column manga serialised via goo blogs from October 2009 and moved to Ameblog in March 2010, features Matsushita as Tatsuki Hayako, a 34-year-old primary school teacher who is not concerned about her single status so far but finds herself unwittingly joining her colleagues in a group which aspires to find marriage partners through arranged meetings and group dates thus leading her to think more about the meaning of romance, family and life.

Hayako has a rather frank personality who doesn't like to listen to other people's advice and prefers to find her own answers. In front of her students, Hayako is a very forgiving and kind teacher but in private, she has a huge appetite, loves drinking and muscle training and would not shy away from making strange faces or performing crude impersonations in front of others. As she is content with her life and work, Hayako is not in a hurry to get married and believes that she will get to doing that one day.

One day, Hayako happens to see a photo album of a person who her parents wanted to introduce her to through an arranged meeting but kept it in a drawer in the end without saying a thing as they pretended not to be too concerned whether their daughter is going to get married. Shortly after, Hayako's father Tatsushi (Bido Isao) falls ill and is hospitalised. Although Hayako suggests that her parents should close down their family business (a tofu shop) so that they can take it easy, she is surprised to see her mother Naoko (Matsuzaka Keiko) try her best to keep the shop going despite not being skilled in the art of making tofu and realises what it means to have a longstanding relationship where two people are bound by a strong bond. This leads her to think seriously about finding someone who can be such a couple with her and joins the konkatsu domei (alliance to get hitched) with her single female colleagues Kugayama Mika (Kanjiya Shihori), Narimasu Umeko (Sato Hitomi) and another male colleague Sendaki Rentaro (Yashima Norito). Co-stars also include Yamauchi Keiya and Tanokura Yuta who play Hayako's married colleagues.

The drama does not aim to be a manual to teach people how to get hitched but rather showcases how Hayako's clumsy efforts affect the people around her yet she still strives to achieve her goal despite suffering various setbacks along the way.

In order to prepare for the role, Matsushita cut her hair by 30cm which is the shortest she has had in 15 years since she was a senior high school student. As such, Matsushita is not used to seeing herself in this hairstyle as she has been having long hair since she made her debut. Nonetheless, she hopes that with this new hairstyle, this will prepare her for the role in this drama. Matsushita also revealed that she can identify with Hayako's circumstances especially since most people would have assumed while they were kids that they would get married once they became adults. However, in her case, she's satisfied with her current situation in work and thinks that marriage is somewhat far from her thoughts now.

Source: Sanspo / FujiTV