Fujiki Naohito to play Sawajiri Erika's ex-husband in NTV Spring 2017 drama "Haha ni naru"

Fujiki Naohito will be playing Sawajiri Erika's ex-husband in the upcoming NTV Spring 2017 drama "Haha ni naru" which will begin its run from April in the Wednesdays 10pm timeslot. The drama features Sawajiri as the lead character Kashiwazaki Yui whose son was kidnapped at the age of three on the way home from nursery just because she failed to pay attention for a brief moment. This led to the breakdown of her marriage and Kashiwazaki has been living on her own since then. 9 years later, she gets reunited with her son who has now turned 13 years old and needs to deal with how to interact with her son again and regain the lost years and her broken family. Co-stars include Koike Eiko who plays Kadokura Asako, the woman who had kidnapped Kashiwazaki's son and taken care of him as a mother for the last nine years and Itaya Yuka who plays Nishihara Risako, Kashiwazaki's friend who has been supporting all this time while her son was missing.

Fujiki will play the role of Yui's ex-husband Yoichi who had separated from her after their son went missing. Although Yoichi used to be an associate professor specialising in the research of artificial intelligence at an university, he became a hikkikomori (social withdrawal staying at home) since his son's disappearance.

The first day of Fujiki's filming was for the scene where the Kashiwazakis first met 16 years ago at a bookstore where Yoichi was ordering a book from Yui who worked there. Fujiki and Sawajiri last worked together in the drama "Ichi litre no namide" about 12 years ago and he remarked that she has always been very mature beyond her age and is doing well to take on the challenge of such a difficult role. As they are playing a married couple this time, he will try his best to match up to her and do a good job. On the other hand, Sawajiri revealed that they didn't really get to chat much when they worked together 12 years ago but she feels that Fujiki has always had a knowledgeable and learned image so the role of Yoichi is a perfect match for him. As for filming the scene from 16 years ago, Sawajiri was more worried about whether she would look like she was 21 years old since that was the age of Yui at that time.

Co-stars in this drama also include Fubuki Jun who plays Rie, Yoichi's mother, Asano Kazuyuki who plays Nishihara Taiji, Yoichi's fellow researcher and professor at the university as well as Takahashi Maryjun, Fujisawa Haruka and Mochizuki Ayumu.

Sources: Yomiuri Hochi / Sponichi / Oricon