Mikami Hiroshi to star in new WOWOW drama "Shachoushitsu no Fuyu - Kyodai Shinbunsha wo toru otoko -"

Mikami Hiroshi will be starring in the new WOWOW drama "Shachoushitsu no Fuyu - Kyodai Shinbunsha wo toru otoko -" (The winter of the president's office - the man who gets the big news company) which consists of 5 episodes and begins its run from 30 April in the Sundays 10pm timeslot. The drama which is based on the novel "Shachoushitsu no Fuyu" by Douba Shunichi, describes how a longstanding news company plots to sell itself to a foreign company. The drama's producer Azuma Yasuyuki explained that in this time and age, with the proliferation of smartphones and social media, news no longer needs to be restricted to being consumed in the form of physical newspapers. As such, the future and purpose of newspapers is being questioned now. At the same time, with the birth of US President Trump who attacks the coverage from news companies as fake news, this is the perfect timing to make a drama about a sensational event like this where a news company tries to sell itself to a foreign company.

In the original novel, the lead character is Minami Kousuke, a reporter of Nihon Shinpo but the drama's setting will change the lead to Aoi Souta (Mikami) who is the president of the Japanese entity of United States' large-scale shopping company AMC. Aoi has some traits in his character which are said to remind people of President Trump e.g. using extreme words to fan people's emotions and doing things in a dangerous manner. He will be the person aiming to take over his former employer Nihon Shinpo for his current employer AMC and behaves like a tyrant towards the people who work with him.

The author Douba described Aoi as a very complicated person who has many sides in his character so he's very eager to see how Mikami will play this character in the drama. On the other hand, Mikami commented that Aoi is like Trump in certain ways e.g. his unwavering beliefs and vision and hopes to be able to show the persistence and passion in Aoi through his acting in this drama.

Sources: Oricon / Eiga.com