Production press conference of new TBS Spring 2017 drama "Chiisana Kyojin"

The production press conference of new TBS Spring 2017 drama "Chiisana Kyojin" was held on 10 April which was attended by cast members Hasegawa Hiroki, Okada Masaki, Yoshine Kyoko, Yasuda Ken, Shunputei Shota and Kagawa Teruyuki. The drama which begins its run from 16 April in the Sundays 9pm timeslot, features Hasegawa as the lead character Kosaka Shinichiro who is a capable detective in Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) 1st section. Despite not having passed the advanced level civil servant examination, Kosaka is still viewed to be a strong contender for the position of section chief. However, his career prospects suffer a huge setback when he makes a mistake during an interrogation and gets transferred to a local police station. While investigating relatively smaller cases, Kosaka meets a group of colleagues who still persist in upholding justice through their own ways even if the cases they handle may seem insignificant. Okada plays Yamada Haruhiko, a detective in MPD who graduated from the prestigious University of Tokyo and aims to become a section chief so as to have the power to investigate an unresolved case. Although Yamada had been Kosaka's subordinate all the while, with Kosaka's transfer to the local police station, the two of them clash with each other at work. Yasuda Ken plays the role of Watanabe Hisashi who plays Kosaka's new colleague and is in charge of showing him the ropes. Shunputei Shota plays Kosaka's former boss Mikasa Yohei who treated him very well and Kagawa plays the role of Onoda Yoshinobu who is the chief of the first investigation section and managed to get to his current position despite only being a senior high school graduate. He is at odds with the previous section chief Mikasa (Shunputei Shota) but decides to take Mikasa's trusted subordinate Kosaka under his wings because he sees Kosaka as an useful tool to further his career prospects. However, when he makes a damning statement against Kosaka, this leads to the latter being transferred thus creating a rift in their relationship. Last but not least, Yoshine will be playing a police officer Mishima Yuri who aspired to become a breeder of police dogs but ends up being sent to the human resources department.

Hasegawa commented that he is honoured to be leading a star-studded cast like this in the drama so he hopes that the viewers will check out this drama. He even cited a key scene involving Yoshine in the first episode which is bound to make a deep impression and the view was echoed by Yasuda who praised her for having the guts to challenge Kagawa who he described as a "monster". Upon hearing this, Kagawa burst out laughing while Yoshine expressed her embarrassment at being praised like that by her seniors.

When asked if they had any policies which they hold onto in life like how the lead character tries to uphold justice, Yoshine said that she has been updating her blog every day since she joined her current agency 5 years ago but she has been feeling that it's time for her to stop. When her co-stars heard about this, they teased her about this and said that this doesn't seem to answer the question.

Kagawa who was in the cast of the hit TBS Summer 2013 drama "Hanzawa Naoki", expressed his wish to see that this drama will also become a social phenomenon in the same way. He recalled that when they held a women-only screening 4 years ago for "Hanzawa Naoki", it wasn't clear which direction the drama was heading towards but thanks to the word-of-mouth of those who came for the screening, it helped to boost the interest in the drama. As such, he hopes that the same impact could be achieved today since they held another similar screening for this drama. Hasegawa also chipped in to ask the audience to help them promote this and share their frank views after watching the first episode as the cast and staff work hard to deliver a drama which they can be proud of.

Sources: Sponichi / Oricon 1 / Oricon 2