Behind the recent trend of 25-and-above actresses jumping on the bandwagon of appearing in alcoholic drinks' CMs

Have you noticed that there has been a recent trend of young actresses in their mid 20s suddenly appearing in alcoholic drinks' CMs for the first time? If so, you may be wondering why so read on to find out more about the reasons leading to this phenomenon!

• In Japan, the legal age to consume alcoholic drinks is 20 years old. Although the age for one to be considered as an adult under civil law has been reduced to 18 years old since April 2022, the age limit of 20 still remains for alcohol and tobacco products. 

• There is actually a self-imposed rule in place since 2016 by 9 alcoholic drinks-related organisations that they would not get anyone below the age of 25 years old to appear in their CMs and that the CMs should not use any expressions that make people appear as if they are below 25 even if their actual ages are 25 and above. These moves were said to be meant to prevent underage drinking by featuring CM personalities who would actually look like "adults" rather than appearing as if they are too young to be drinking. In addition, the CMs these days tend to have self-imposed restrictions such as avoiding expressions that could lead to excessive drinking and sound effects such as the sound of alcohol going down the throat. 

• It is also worth noting that the TV CMs of alcoholic drinks are not shown between 5am and 6pm so these appear typically during primetime i.e. 7pm to 11pm when there are the most viewers. It is also common to see such CMs appear during the commercial slots of the dramas/shows which the actresses themselves are acting in. Getting a CM offer for a alcoholic drink is also seen as a testament to one's popularity and name awareness.

• As such, it has become more apparent that there are more young and popular actresses turning 25 and above who have started to appear in such alcoholic drinks' CMs for the first time. In February alone, Nagano Mei was unveiled to be the new CM heroine for Suntory's highball Torys while Sugisaki Hana was the new messenger for SUI, a gin product also from Suntory. Nagano herself confirmed during her CM announcement event that she finally got her first alcoholic drink CM deal now that she had turned 25.

• Looking back at recent years, Hashimoto Kanna and Fukuhara Haruka first appeared in alcohol-related CMs last year while the same applied to Hirose Suzu in the year before last. Imada Mio also took on her first alcohol CM in 2022. Nogizaka46 also started to appear in a beer CM after all of their members were 25 years old and above.

• A key reason behind getting these actresses to appear in the alcoholic drinks' CMs is said to be their cross-generational reach and name awareness. Nagano, Sugisaki, Hashimoto, Fukuhara, Hirose and Imada (the next asadora heroine) had all appeared in NHK's morning dramas thus the general public is largely aware of them. And since they do not appear so much on TV unlike talents, it would be a refreshing sight to see them in the CMs where they get to show off another side of them unlike when they act as other characters.

• Another factor is the gradual decline in the alcohol consumption of the younger generations. By getting these young actresses to promote the products and tapping on their huge social media following, it is anticipated that they would be able to achieve the best promotional impact for the products they endorse.

• It has also become more common and acceptable for young actresses at the age of 25 and above to openly talk about their love for alcohol or share episodes of their "drunken" episodes in variety shows and events. For example, Kawaguchi Haruna has a solo drinking video series on her YouTube channel which has close to 5 million views to date.

• This year, there will be a number of actresses who will turn 25 so they may be the next to appear in a new alcoholic drink CM soon e.g. Hamabe Minami, Kamishiraishi Moka, Mikami Ai, Kawai Yumi, Fukumoto Riko.

Preview of "Wagaya wa tanoshi" (Drama SP)

Title: Wagaya wa tanoshi / わが家は楽し

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official X: here

O.A. Date: 13 March 2025 at 9pm

Broadcast by: TBS

Cast: Kohinata Fumiyo, Toda Keiko, Takahashi Kaito, Sakurai Yuki, Yamada Anna, Enari Kazuki, YOU, Iwasaki Kaneko, Kimura Midoriko, Kadono Takuzo, Inoue Jun, Murata Takehiro, Niwa Sadahito, Fukutome Mitsuho, Kitayama Masayasu, Ikushima Yuki, Masutome Yuria & Mita Yoshiko

Winners of the 15th Location Japan Taisho (2023/2024) and interesting trends from past years' winners

Location filming information magazine "Location Japan" announced its list of winners for the "Location Japan Taisho" on 20 Feb 2025 which highlights movies, dramas and anime works that helped in boosting awareness and popularity of their filming locations or where the stories were set in. The 15th edition of this award had 40 nominated works shown between 1 Nov 2023 and 31 Oct 2024 which featured 61 places/regions before 7 were selected as the final winners.

Judging was done by industry experts such as those from the Japan Tourism Agency and included the following 4 parameters: 

• Voting was by about 20,000 members of the public
• Level of support provided to the production teams by the local authorities
• Measures to boost the level of ease of travel to the locations
• Extent of change to the locations as a result of the exposure and increase in number of tourists

Note that some works were set/shot in multiple locations as indicated in brackets:

Grand Prix: "Meitantei Conan 100 man doru no michishirube" (Hakodate City, Hokkaido Prefecture) - Anime Movie

Runner-up: "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" (Nagasaki Prefecture / Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture) - Drama

Category - Voters' Choice: "Hikaru kimi e" (Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture / Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture / Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture) - Drama

Category - Filming Support: "Ano hana ga saku oka de, Kimi to mata deaetara" (Namegata City, Ibaraki Prefecture) - Movie

Category - Ease of Travel: "Sukidemo kirai na ama no jaku" (Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture) - Anime Movie

Category - Regional Change: "Karakai jouzu no Takagi-san" (Kagawa Prefecture / Tonosho-cho, Kagawa Prefecture / Shodoshima-cho, Kagawa Prefecture) - Drama & Movie

Judges' Special Award: "Tomochika Suspense Gekijou [Sotoyumeguri Mystery Dogo sutorippujou renzoku satsujin]" - YouTube

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Looking at past years' winners, here are some interesting trends which I found with regard to the non-anime movies & dramas that were selected over the past 15 years:

• Movies seem to have a slight edge over dramas when it comes to the proportion of winners over the past 15 years - 58% vs. 42%. It could be that most movies tend to be shown to a nationwide audience as compared to TV series which may not be shown at the same time due to regional schedules and differences. For example, dramas shown in the Tokyo metropolitan area or the Kanto region may be broadcast at a slightly later date in other prefectures or not be shown there at all. As such, the limit in terms of reach may result in a difference in terms of the influence which the work has in terms of boosting awareness and popularity of its filming location(s).

• NHK's Taiga dramas and asadoras seem to be dominating this award as seen from 60% of the drama winners being from the national broadcaster. Coming in at a distant second is TBS with about 19%, FujiTV at almost 7%, NTV and TV Tokyo tied at close to 5% and TV Asahi at 2%. One possible reason is that the broadcast period for the Taigas (1 year) and asadoras (6 months) are at least double of the seasonal dramas (mostly ranging from 6 to 11 weeks). With a longer exposure period, it will no doubt enhance the impression that viewers have of the filming locations. 

• Netflix broke the monopoly by the TV stations for the first time last year with "First Love Hatsukoi" which was shot in Hokkaido. Considering the fact that the title can only be watched by Netflix's subscribers as compared to dramas on free-to-air TV stations, this also signals the possibility of OTT content having a wider reach and stronger influence on viewers compared to the past.

• While the format of this award has evolved over the years e.g. from having grand prix awards for both dramas and movies to a single grand prix award, the winners for the top title are spread evenly across both categories - 7 each. It is worth noting that although the Taigas and asadoras hogged the top spot in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th and 14th editions ("Ryomaden" won the Location Japan Grand Prix and Drama Category - Grand Prix), movies took the title for 4 years straight until "Dousuru Ieyasu" broke the spell last year. If you consider this year's winner which is an anime movie, it does seem like movies have a growing influence on the public in terms of "promoting its shooting locations" as compared to TV dramas.

• Looking at the list of winners in terms of prefectures, the top spot is actually not Tokyo but neighbouring Kanagawa! Perhaps due to its proximity to the capital where many TV stations and production companies are based at and the fact that it has a variety of landscapes from mountains, the sea, beaches, islands and suburbs to offer as well as the prefecture's strong support for entertainment productions, this could be why works shot in Kanagawa seem to be recognised more for their influence and popularity on the public. As for the other top contenders, Hokkaido, Nagasaki and Shizuoka come in at a close second with 7 awards each while Nagano and Tokyo are tied at 6.

• On the other hand, some prefectures have not appeared on this award before. Surprisingly or not, they tend to be rather far from Tokyo or somewhat inaccessible due to reasons such as mountains or forests: Gunma, Nara, Wakayama, Tottori, Tokushima, Ehime, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Okinawa. I'm a bit surprised by Gunma's omission though because the recent interview with the directing team of "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" did mention that their Hashima set was built in Gunma but I guess that was sort of concealed till the end of the drama and that the story was still largely based in Nagasaki. As for Okinawa, I'm quite certain that some dramas/movies would have been shot there especially those with a summer theme but it could be that the link between those works and the filming locations did not translate into strong benefits for the locality in terms of awareness or popularity through tourism income.

While I do not actively seek out filming locations of my favourite dramas and movies when I visit Japan, it can be fun to check out such places if I happen to be in the area. In addition, the impact of boosting a place's awareness and popularity through these entertainment works especially in the economic sense is definitely something which shouldn't be taken lightly. Sites like Location Japan offer a lot of information on these places so you can refer to such sites when planning your trips.

However, the downside of such heightened interest in a place is potential over-tourism which can have an undesirable impact on the local residents and spoil your experience at the same time. I'm sure we have read about the influx of tourists to places like the famous train intersection featured in "Slam Dunk", the "Kimi no na" fever to places in Gifu Prefecture or the endless queue at the cafe featured in "silent" when the drama was such a hit as well as complaints of unruly visitors and how they affected the residents around such locations. As such, while it's a good thing for local authorities and businesses to benefit from this trend of shooting location tourism, there is also a need to think about how to manage the crowds and ensure that everyone will have a pleasant experience visiting these places featured in your favourite works. On our part, we will also need to consider and ensure that we do not cause unnecessary disturbances to others while enjoying our time at these filming locations.

Quick Review #104: Demon City Onigoroshi (movie)

Title: Demon City Onigoroshi / Demon City 鬼ゴロシ

Rating: 2 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who like action flicks featuring close contact combat and don't mind the lack of a robust storyline

* Disclaimer: I have not read the original manga

Liked:

- For those who like action films which focus more on close contact combat rather than gun action, you would probably enjoy this movie. There were quite a lot of such action sequences which allowed the lead Ikuta Toma to shine in this aspect.

- Just when the story hinted at a possible sequel with some remnants of evil, I was glad to see that there was a proper and complete ending. It would have been quite annoying to see signs of this story possibly continuing given the lackluster plot. And considering how the bulk of the action scenes were close contact combat, the way it ended was a good contrast with the general direction thus far.

Disliked: 

- While I cannot comment on whether the real life adaptation did justice to the original manga, the lack of a proper storyline in this movie version was hugely disappointing. The focus was entirely on taking revenge but there were some loopholes and things which were not properly explained. First of all, from a state of being paralyzed to killing tons of people with the logic-defying movements - there was no justification for the lead character being "resurrected" in this manner other than the possible reason of the mysterious substance injected into his drip while at the hospital. Even so, that substance should have been meant to kill, not make him "mutate" into someone who could use his body at will. 

In addition, given that there were so many people he killed along the way, it was odd that he resorted to a method which was not "effort-effective" because it required so much strength and movements yet exposed himself to the risk of sustaining injuries as well. And not to mention, he had to kill out in the open, not in a sly and undetectable manner. Not so smart if you are considering the setting that he was supposed to be a top-notch assassin. Keeping gun action and explosives to a minimum may be good from an action movie point of view but it just didn't make much sense.

Last but not least, while the concept of using Japanese demon masks was probably meant to conceal the identity of the baddies, I thought that it might be better to attach some meaning to why these particular masks were used and to explain how these people fitted into the grand scheme of things. And the lack of a strong ideology banding these people together other than for financial gains wasn't convincing. As such, all the characters came across as largely flat and their motivations difficult to understand. Even for the lead character, due to the lack of lines and minimal facial expressions, he also became someone who the audience would have difficulty empathizing with despite the great wrong he had suffered. 

- Much as I thought that this movie allowed Ikuta to show off his skills as an action actor, it certainly doesn't showcase him as one who's capable of more delicate and emotional acting because his character was largely emotionless except when faced with his wife and daughter. As such, I think this will be quite disappointing even for big fans of Ikuta.

Highlights from the interview of the directing team for "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" - Best Directing in the 122nd Drama Academy Awards

Here are some highlights from The Television's interview with the directing team i.e. Tsukahara Ayuko, Fukuda Ryosuke, Hayashi Satoshi & Fukawa Ryosuke for "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" which won the Best Directing category in the 122nd Drama Academy Awards:

• The filming of the drama took as long as six months. Prior to that, another month was spent on sourcing for a suitably-sized location and building the open set of Hashima Ginza somewhere in Gunma Prefecture. As such, it was challenging and time-consuming to keep shuttling between Tokyo and Gunma during the filming period.

• Due to the dangers of filming in the Hashima of today due to the poor condition of its buildings and structures, they could only film in specific areas that were open to the public tours. As such, they approached the ex-residents for input on how to design the interior parts of the buildings and rebuilt these in the Midoriyama Studio.

• As there are many ex-Hashima residents who are still living, they had to make sure that the scenes set in Hashima were as accurate as possible. It was a relief for them to get feedback from these ex-residents who were impressed with how the staff managed to replicate the scenes from back then.

• The scenes on Hashima during the Showa era were created through CG. 

• The team praised the lead actor Kamiki Ryuunosuke for being a very cheerful person who could slip into his two characters Teppei and Reo with ease as soon as filming began. He also contributed ideas and exchanged views with the staff for various scenes such as when Teppei confessed his feelings to Asako. Even when the team had some challenging requirements, Kamiki was also able to meet these without difficulty. From the beginning, he could already understand what the script wanted and obviously put in a lot of effort to build his characters before the filming began.

• With regard to viewers' feedback that Teppei's life after leaving Hashima was so sad, the team explained that this had to do with the time setting of the story i.e. soon after the end of World War II. As depicted in Ep 4, the sins of the adults i.e. the generation of Teppei's parents were passed on to their children i.e. Teppei's generation in various ways. In order to break this cycle of tragedy, Teppei's position in the story was meant to be the person who took on the sins when he left Hashima so that the children of future generations could lead peaceful and happy lives. As to whether Teppei was happy with his life or not, that would be something which only he could have an answer to despite how others may feel sad for his fate. Especially as shown in the final moments of the last episode, Teppei had lived in a house facing the sea and Hashima so this could be interpreted as having some moments of happiness despite his harsh fate.

• While this drama was ultimately entertainment, the team also saw that it provided a starting point for conversations and thinking about history, be it about the war or the coal mining industry or Hashima based on their recent thanksgiving trip to Nagasaki after filming ended. There were also other important messages in the story such as the value of family relationships, the passion of the older generations passing on to the current generations and taking conscious steps to change our lives for the better.

• With regard to the scene when Shinpei (Saito Takumi) shot a gangster to save Rina (Ikeda Elaiza) in Ep 5, they didn't want to show him as a hero who saved a damsel in distress. This was because the sin of his action ended up being borne by Teppei who had to leave Hashima as a fugitive and also led to other people's lives being affected as a result. In addition, considering that Shinpei had participated in the war as a soldier and had experience shooting people to defend himself, his action could also be considered as a natural reaction rather than a calculated move to save Rina. There was also a message to be conveyed that using violence to counter violence would just result in an endless loop and downward spiral as seen by what the Araki family had to shoulder after Shinpei's death.

Quick Review #103: Nodame Cantabile - Autumn 2006

Title: Nodame Cantabile / のだめカンタービレ

Rating: 9 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who are fans of the original manga series and the cast members especially Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi and/or like school dramas with a classical music/musicians theme

* Disclaimer: I had read the original manga.

Liked:

- I can't remember how many times I've watched this drama since its first OA almost 20 years ago but with its release on Netflix recently, I found it hard to resist taking another look at this again. Especially considering the fact that I had read the original manga first before watching this drama, I was still entertained enough to watch this without having the need to press fast-forward or watch this at 1.5X playback speed.

- If you had read the post I wrote in August 2006 prior to the OA of this drama, I was pretty doubtful about whether this real-life drama adaptation would be good. Since I am a big fan of the manga, I didn't like the prospect of the drama ruining it for me. What's more, considering that I wasn't too familiar with Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi back then, I didn't have much confidence in them playing Nodame and Chiaki. However, all that turned out to be worry for nothing because they turned out to be so good at playing their respective roles so much that I became convinced they were the best choices after all.

Back then, I had also mentioned that Mizukawa Asami, Nagayama Eita and Uehara Misa would be good for their roles because they matched the images in the manga (at least from my perspective). Once I got to watch the drama, there were quite a number of others who also managed to bring their characters to life in a good way e.g. Koide Keisuke, Fukushi Seiji, Mukai Osamu and Takenaka Naoto. It will be a good walk down memory lane for those who want to see these actors back in their younger days.

- One key element of this drama's success was the classical music scenes. Be it the practice sessions or the actual performances, they were a joy to sit through even for those who are unfamiliar with this genre. My personal favourites are S Orchestra's performance of "Rhapsody In Blue" and the Rising Star Orchestra's performances at Suntory Hall in the final episode.

Disliked: 

- The only downside to being so familiar with the storyline and characters was the lack of surprise. As such, watching this felt a bit different from approaching a brand new story and could feel a tad boring for those like me because you would know what was going to come.

Updates related to the Nakai Masahiro & FujiTV incident - 28 Feb 2025

Since there would probably not be many significant developments in this incident prior to the release of findings by FujiTV's third party investigation committee in late March 2025, the frequency of these updates will be less frequent until then. Besides developments and information directly related to FujiTV, it is expected that the other TV stations will also share their own investigation findings in due course.

- The background story of FujiTV's shift to Odaiba and its love for the number 8: 

• FujiTV was the ratings king for 12 years from 1982 to 1993. Its HQ used to be in Kawada-cho, Shinjuku Ward.
• Construction on the new HQ in Odaiba began in May 1993 and the move was completed in March 1995.
• However, this also marked the beginning of its decline and by the time president Kameyama Chihiro was at the helm in 2015, its annual average rating was No.4 out of the 5 key Tokyo-based private TV stations. In November the same year, its primetime weekly ratings position was even overtaken by TV Tokyo which was usually in the last spot.
• The site of FujiTV's new HQ was part of the Waterfront Sub-capital Development Plan which began in the midst of the bubble era in 1989 and the goal was to create a huge business district in Odaiba. However, with the election of Aoshima Yukio, the Tokyo governor in 1995, the World Cities Expo scheduled to take place from March to October 1996 was cancelled. As such, FujiTV's plan to showcase its unique globe-shaped observatory in the air through this expo failed to materialise.
• To begin with, the employees themselves were not so convinced by the need to move to Odaiba. Part of the reason was that there were many production companies which worked with FujiTV located around Kawada-cho and that its proximity to Shinjuku Nichome made it a convenient area to hold business meetings. However, Odaiba was lacking in entertainment options back then and you had to cross the Rainbow Bridge as the sole means to access the area. As such, employees were concerned that nobody would want to come to Odaiba if they had no specific purpose to do so.
• While some affiliated companies and production staff did move together to Odaiba, the environment was also said to be not so conducive for work with the area positioned as a tourist attraction and the space design not optimal due to the mid-air corridors linking the buildings.
• Some also cited the poor location in terms of fengshui and fortune telling as a reason why employees were not enthusiastic about the move. It was believed that the direction in which the HQ moved from Kawada-cho to Odaiba was seen as the most inauspicious.
• In order to remove such poor perceptions of the area, FujiTV deliberately incorporated the Rainbow Bridge in many of its productions so as to give it an image overhaul e.g. the 1997 drama "Love Generation" starring Kimura Takuya & Matsu Takako and the 2003 movie "Odoru Daisousasen THE MOVIE 2 Rainbow Bridge wo fusa seyo!". Many other FujiTV shows also kept showing footage of the new HQ building and the Rainbow Bridge.
• FujiTV and its executives seem to have a strong attachment for the number 8. During the shift to digital terrestrial broadcasting in 2011, other TV stations changed their channels but FujiTV stuck to the number 8. This was seen as putting it at a huge disadvantage due to its positioning on the TV remote control and the TV program listings in newspapers. Besides this, the date when Hieda Hisashi became the president was 8 August 1988 so this became the annual FujiTV Day. Its listing on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was 8 August 1997 and the countdown to this was started at a time which lined up a string of 6 eights i.e. Heisei 8th year (1996) 8 August at 8.08am 8 seconds. The big meeting room where the regular president's press conference is held has a huge painting of Mount Fuji which has 8 peaks at the top nicknamed as "8 Leaves" and symbolises the 8-leaf lotus flower of Buddhism and the number 8 in Kanji.

- Despite the headwinds against FujiTV's shows, "119 Emergency Call" seems to be doing relatively well in various aspects:

• As of 14 February 2025, the number of TVer subscribers who added this drama to their favourites exceeded more than 930,000 thus making it within shot of making it to the top 3 for this season. In contrast, the other FujiTV primetime dramas are outside of the top 10. While this may be due to individual preferences pertaining to these dramas, the potential impact of the anti-FujiTV sentiment as a result of the ongoing scandal cannot be discounted as well.
• The drama managed to keep its household rating above 7% up to Ep 4. 
• Feedback about the drama on social media is largely positive with praise centered on the increasingly interesting storyline and its realistic portrayal.
• Its inclusion of popular voice actors in every episode so far seems to have gathered their fans as well to tune in to the drama.
• While there had been a tendency to rely on famous actors and scriptwriters for the Mondays 9pm timeslot, the changing of generations within FujiTV has brought about a higher willingness to give relatively unknowns or up-and-coming people a chance. In Seino Nana's case, this is her first leading role in a Mondays 9pm drama. 
• Especially since FujiTV's reputation has taken a hit because of the Nakai incident and there has been an increasing reluctance to be associated with their shows, this might open up more opportunities for those who haven't made it big yet.

- Doing the right thing at the right time?: With the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Tokyo Sarin Attack caused by Aum Shinrikyo on 20 March this year, FujiTV intends to air a special review programme on this case in the same month as reported by Sponichi on 7 February 2025. However, response to this piece of news has been somewhat critical due to FujiTV's handling of its own scandal and whether their priorities are misplaced i.e. they should review their own case first before doing the same for other things. As such, this has led to speculation if this is a move by FujiTV to deflect attention and criticism away from itself.

On the other hand, it was pointed out that this topic has been on FujiTV's radar for a long time since they had done similar features after 2000 when media attention on this matter was already waning. The issue though is, the timing of this 30th anniversary special may be considered inappropriate and in turn diminish the impact and meaning of their original intention to remind viewers about this important case in history.

- The first meeting of Fuji Media Holdings' Management Reform Subcommittee was held on 3 February 2025 but the composition of this subcommittee was cast into doubt as whether the company really has the intention to conduct reforms to its heavily-criticised corporate structure and governance systems:

• The committee is made up of 7 external directors of FMH. Considering that these directors were almost non-existent since Nakai's incident first came to light at the end of last year, it is doubtful as to whether they will be able to do anything to bring about the necessary changes.
• Among them, the inclusion of Yamada Makiko who used to be a former Prime Minister's Secretary/Cabinet Public Relations Officer is seen to be especially problematic. As the TV stations' broadcasting licenses are given out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the fact that Yamada came from this ministry and the amakudari practice (high-ranking government officials taking a lucrative job in a private or semi-private corporation) has already been criticised as one of the contributing factors to the crisis, makes her eligibility and willingness to lead reforms questionable. Adding on to the suspicion that she did not perform her duty to check on FujiTV's management was the statement made by former president Minato Koichi when asked by reporters during the second press conference on 27 Jan 2025. He confirmed then that the decision not to allow live broadcasting and video recording of the first press conference had nothing to do with her since she doesn't come to FujiTV regularly and wasn't at the TV station when they made this decision.
• The remaining 6 members of this committee are also seen as reflective of advisor Hieda's preferences and easily influenced by him. 2 of them are from key corporations within Fuji Sankei Group - Sankei Shimbun and Bunka Housou while 1 is from Daiwa Securities Goup which is FujiTV's lead underwriter securities firm. Kikkoman's honorary chairman is widely known to be Hieda's close friend and the company even sponsored a programme on FujiTV for more than 50 years to date. The children of two of the committee members are also employees of FujiTV (one had already left). 
• With regard to the selection criteria of the committee members and transparency of its work, FujiTV's PR department did not want to provide details. However, it stated that the selection was done based on requirements for outside directors stipulated in the Companies Act and the independence standards stipulated by financial instruments exchanges.

- Economic magazine "Shuukan Diamond" pulled off its latest issue due to be published on 17 Feb 2025 due to a mistake in its article based on a survey of FujiTV's sponsors. The editorial department found a mismatch in the company names and responses just before the publishing date. As of 14 Feb, although the copies were already delivered to bookstores, they would not be sold to the customers. Subscribers would have already received their copies with the wrong information by post. The publisher will follow up with a correction notice and upload the updated information on its homepage on 17 February.

The survey was conducted on 436 companies which placed ads on FujiTV and about 300 responses were received by Diamond. This is the first time in the magazine's history to suspend an issue. According to the Japan Magazines Publishers Association, the circulation figure of "Shuukan Diamond" was 72,000 per issue as of the last quarter of 2024.

- WOWOW announced on 14 Feb that it will no longer show nor provide the 2008 movie "Watashi wa kai ni naritai" starring Nakai on its streaming platform. The film was originally scheduled to be shown at 2.20pm on 21 Feb. In its statement, WOWOW apologised for the last-minute decision and explained that this was a move made in line with its corporate guidelines and in view of the current situation and customer feedback.

- Asset management company Rheos Capital Works Inc. has become a major shareholder of FujiTV's parent company Fuji Media Holdings with 5.12%. The holding of the latter's shares is said to be for investment purposes. While Rheos intends to use its rights as a shareholder, it has no plans to get involved in FMH's management. This is not the first time that Rheos has acquired shares of parent companies which own TV stations as it also had 5.31% of shares in TV Tokyo Holdings as of Oct 2024. 

• According to a Bloomberg interview with Rheos' president Fujino Hideto, he pointed out that FMH's problems are due to its management being dominated by elderly men and their corporate culture which ignores human rights. He felt that if these factors are eliminated from the company, FujiTV will then have a chance at reinventing itself and change its future.
• Rheos was reported to have started buying FMH's shares since 20 Jan which was three days after FujiTV's first press conference. On that day, the share price was JPY 1,785.5. At the time when Nakai's incident first came to light on 19 Dec 2024, the share price was JPY 1,858. By the time it was known that Rheos had become a major shareholder on 7 Feb, the share price had already surged to JPY 2,516.
• What's interesting this time is how former "enemies" are seemingly banding together now. Rheos is a consolidated subsidiary of SBI Holdings whose chairman and president is Kitao Yoshitaka. Back in 2005, Kita was a white knight of Nippon Housou which was facing a takeover bid by Livedoor led by Horie Takafumi. Since FujiTV was a subsidiary of Nippon Housou at that time, this move effectively prevented FujiTV from being taken over. This led to Horie holding a grudge against Hieda and Kitao but he and Kitao reconciled after that. SBI Investments even invested JPY 1 billion in Horie's rocket development venture "Interstellar Technologies" in 2022. Since Horie had already declared openly that he will be buying FMH shares so as to attend the upcoming shareholders' meeting and pressure the management to carry out reforms, it is speculated that he may be teaming up with SBI Holdings and Rheos this time even though Fujino denied this collaboration.
• According to the Companies Act, as long as more than half of the shareholders agree to remove the elderly management team at the general shareholders meeting, the motion can then be passed. As such, this is comparatively easier to execute vs. implementing fundamental changes to FujiTV's corporate culture. For example, at FujiTV's 533rd Program Council in Jan 2024, the chairman Tadaki Keiichi said that being overly mindful of human rights would restrict the creative space and liberty needed to make TV programmes which will then become so boring and rejected by the viewers eventually.
• Unlike the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organisation (BPO) which has no legal power on TV stations, the program council in each TV station has the authority to drive programming decisions. As such, the stance of the council will shape the TV station's production values and direction more so than BPO.

- President Online's article provides a review of FujiTV over the years and examines whether there is a likelihood of it becoming a "normal" TV station again:

• It is important to note that at this stage, FujiTV has not committed a criminal offense under the Broadcasting Act or the Companies Act yet. As such, its relation to Nakai's incident has more to do with its moral and social responsibilities as a TV broadcaster.
• It is probably more accurate to say that the problems with the TV station lies in its management's poor awareness of human rights especially for women and not sharing information with stakeholders when a portion of senior management members came to know about the Nakai incident and continuing to hire Nakai as a host after that. 
• As such, to use the term "poor governance" to describe these problems as a whole does not seem entirely correct since the company itself and its parent are actually operating soundly from a business perspective.
• To regain the public's trust, the most important point is probably how the TV station will revamp itself to something which matches the public's expectations. It is clear that a radical change in management and executives is the way to go of which attention is centered on its advisor Hieda Hisashi who has been controlling FujiTV for almost 40 years.
• If the era of the founding family's control is included, FujiTV's history has been dominated by that and Hieda's era for about 60 years since its opening in 1959 as the 4th key station based in Tokyo.
• Back when FujiTV was established, since the financial sector was the key driver, it was regarded as the mass media outlet for the financial world. Initially, it was chaotic until the Shikanai family took total control for close to 30 years. Subsequently, the Hieda coup took place in 1992 which led to Hieda becoming the president at the young age of 50.
• Looking at the 8 FujiTV's presidents who succeeded Hieda, it is clear that the stints of the presidents got shorter to about 2 years per person after 2010. This coincided with the timing of FujiTV's decline in various aspects and was reflective of the difficulties faced by these short-term presidents to do anything significant during their stints. It was also obvious that those who were former producers were actually unfamiliar with the corporate management side of things and their ages at the time of their appointment were mostly on the higher side i.e. 60 years old and above. While reasons for their departures varied, it didn't appear as if they quit voluntarily so it was obvious that the appointment decisions were beyond their control.
• In terms of the chairman, Hieda hogged the seat for a long 16 years before his successor Kanou Shuuji took over for just 2 years between 2017 and 2019. The latter was then "transferred" to affiliated Kansai TV to be its chairman before being restored to the same position in FujiTV 4 years later.
• Another problem area cited in the Hieda empire is its overly close ties with the political world especially with the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. In addition, the practice of amakudari as seen from the appointment of multiple former key government officials (some of them even plagued by scandals) to take on senior executive positions is viewed unfavourably.
• Currently, Fuji Sankei Group has become a massive organisation with 78 companies, 4 corporate bodies, 3 art museums and about 13,000 employees.
• Even if Hieda is out of the picture, his influence in the organisation can still be seen from the appointment of key officials who are seen to be those in his favour. As such, conducting a total revamp of management is likely to create huge chaos and not so easy to do as people may imagine it to be.

- While FujiTV was said to be the pioneer in starting the joshiana (female announcers) boom in Japan back in the 1980s, it was actually during Hieda's era as the company president when the TV station started giving nicknames ending with "pan" to its female announcers and promoting them as if they were also TV talents. Looking at the 10 generations of "pan" announcers in their history, 5 of them had already left FujiTV i.e. first generation Chino Shio (Chino-pan), second generation Takashima Aya (Aya-pan), 4th generation Kato Ayako (Kato-pan), 7th generation Mita Yurika (Mita-pan) and 10th generation Kuji Akiko (Kuji-pan). In addition, looking at the number of female announcers who left FujiTV since 2000, there were as many as 20 of them in total.

On the other hand, while TBS had 16 announcers who left, none of them were those who joined from 2018 onwards. Over at TV Tokyo, it doesn't hire new announcers annually due to its size and lower number of news reporting programmes and has a smaller team to begin with so it had only 9 announcers who left during the same period.

As for NTV and TV Asahi, due to the strong power that their parent companies hold i.e. Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun respectively, it is said that their compliance standards in the announcer department are comparatively higher than that of the other key stations. And since they have a higher number of female management in the announcer department, these TV stations are said to be better at protecting their staff against unwanted advances or unnecessary entertainment functions. In NTV, 18 announcers left since 2000 while TV Asahi had only 11 who left.

- NTV released the results of its internal survey during its regular president's press conference on 17 Feb 2025:

• The survey had 161 respondents mainly from the programme production side. These included 12 executives and producers from the content production, news reporting and sports reporting teams. A total of 25 female announcers were also interviewed in person.
• The theme of the survey was to investigate if there were any meal gatherings where inappropriate sexual contact or advances were made.
• Due to the urgency of trying to establish this, the survey was limited to a small group of people.
• While there were no reported instances of such meal gatherings, 12 respondents mentioned that the purpose of some gatherings were indeed ambiguous.
• As some respondents did not give clear answers or could not answer for sure about some instances and some had felt uncomfortable about speaking in person, there will be an anonymous survey about human rights to be conducted in March so as to identify possible sexual and power harassment issues.

During the press conference, the president also revealed that Nakai had informed NTV on 17 December 2024 about being interviewed by a magazine which was 2 days before the publication and followed up with them again on 6 January 2025. However, he didn't divulge any details about what the issue was about citing the reason as due to a confidentiality agreement. He also apologised for any potential inconvenience that would arise. Eventually, Nakai left the show "The! Sekai Gyoten News" after news reports about his incident came to light.

- While the TV industry is enveloped in a moody state due to the recent spate of bad news, NTV's upcoming Sports Fest at Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena on 15 March 2025 looks likely to be a massive event for the entire group's companies. As many as more than 10,000 employees and their family members from about 50 companies under NTV Holdings including NTV, BS Japan, Ax-on Inc., Hulu and Studio Ghibli are expected to attend this. Although some have wondered if the timing of this event meant as a show of unity and positivity in NTV Holdings is to contrast against the state of things over at FujiTV, the event was actually decided more than 6 months ago and seen as important to garner support from the affiliated companies for NTV's annual charity event "24 Jikan Terebi" in August.

- Mainichi Shimbun's public opinion poll conducted on 15 and 16 Feb 2025 included 2 questions pertaining to FujiTV in relation to its role in the Nakai incident. While such opinion polls tend to focus on political issues, there are sometimes questions about societal issues included:

1) Was it appropriate for companies to pull off their CMs from FujiTV: 

Yes: 58% 

No: 16% 

Neutral: 25%

2) What do you think FujiTV should do in order to regain public trust?

Investigate and clarify the suspicion over FujiTV's employees' involvement in the matter: 45%

Investigate the real situation about how female announcers and employees were reportedly made use of for entertainment functions: 42%

Revamp the management team: 52%

Come up with preventive measures: 48%

Others: 8%

Not Sure: 10%

- FujiTV's poor public perception seems to be something which has been going on for some time:

• Back in Jun 2015 when three of its female announcers appeared on FujiTV's talk show "Bokura no jidai", they commented on how the TV station seemed to be pursuing a negative image on purpose and that the dislike towards it seemed to be more about its image rather than the content it made.
• Leaving out TV Tokyo which is comparatively smaller in size, FujiTV has been the TV station with the worst household ratings among the 4 Tokyo-based key TV stations since 2016 for 8 consecutive years. In terms of individual ratings, it has been in the last spot since 2020 after measurement criteria for this parameter was standardised.
• In All About's favourite TV station survey conducted in April 2024 (500 people from their teens to 70s), FujiTV was no.4 behind NTV, TBS and TV Tokyo. Interestingly, while TV Asahi was last in this favourites ranking, it had good household ratings because its content is mainly targeted at older audiences who are said to watch more TV than the younger generations. This is probably why TV Asahi continues to include the household ratings figures in its annual reports despite other TV stations stopping this practice since the individual ratings measurement standard was finalised in 2020. Their reluctance to phase out household ratings measurement is also believed to be one of the key obstructions to the streamlining of ratings reporting from households to individuals. Just like FujiTV, TV Asahi's chairman who is about the same age as Hieda of FujiTV, has been hogging the position for 16 years.
• Another survey conducted by J-CAST News in May/June 2018 asked 1,014 respondents which TV station they disliked. FujiTV won the top spot with 32.7% of the votes.
• FujiTV's first golden era was between 1982 and 1993 where they won the triple crowns i.e. No.1 in average ratings for the three time belts - all-day (6am to 12 midnight), golden (7pm to 10pm) and primetime (7pm to 11pm) for 12 consecutive years. Even for the period between 2004 and 2010, there was a time when they got this title for 3 consecutive years. However, the ratings decline came and persists till today.
• Despite their poor performance, FujiTV still felt that it was the leader among the private networks and even came up with a programme which positioned itself as one which considered the future of the industry which was not a welcomed move by its competitors. As it got more anxious about its poor performance, FujiTV made a series of programmes which were either heavily criticised or exposed to have fake or made-up content. Even so, there were hardly any proper investigations nor explanations about the problems which led to a huge distrust and dislike for the TV station that built up over the years.

- FujiTV announced on 21 Feb 2025 that their annual summer special programme "27 Jikan Terebi 2025" has been cancelled. 

- TBS released the findings of its investigation about the relationship between its employees and those in the entertainment industry on 21 Feb 2025 which was initiated following the Nakai incident:

• There was indeed a TBS announcer who had attended the meal gathering organised by a FujiTV executive in May 2023 which Nakai also appeared at. However, there were no sexual advances made to this announcer and she did not notice any of the same made to other women at that gathering. In addition, she made it clear from the start that she could not stay late so had left before the gathering ended. As for having a meal with Nakai, that was the only time it happened.
• As for the barbecue at Nakai's home on 31 May 2023, it was also confirmed that 2 male employees had attended it as they were invited personally by Nakai himself. There were other individuals from the entertainment industry and FujiTV's programming department at the event. These two employees left when the barbecue ended and did not see nor hear any inappropriate behaviour during the event.

- TV Asahi revealed some information about how the Nakai / FujiTV incident had an impact on them:

• There was a sense of crisis for the entire TV industry in terms of compliance issues so TV Asahi also did their own investigation on whether there was a similar situation internally. Although they did not identify any instances, they are currently in the midst of doing a second round survey on about 70 employees. 
• As for the sponsor pullout at FujiTV, some companies did come to TV Asahi since they had freed up a portion of their budgets originally meant for FujiTV. However, timing-wise, most of the CM slots were already taken up for February and March 2025 so it was difficult to absorb about 20% of the original CM market share at one go.
• In particular, March is a period when sponsors typically need to use up their remaining budgets so it was hard to tell if the spike in advertising income was due to this reason or what happened at FujiTV.

- During TBS' regular president's briefing on 26 Feb 2025, it was revealed that Nakai had contacted TBS just before the article on his incident came out on 19 Dec 2024 but he did not give any details on the matter. As such, the TV station had no choice but to cancel the recording sessions of his shows "Nakai Masahiro no kinyoubi no sumairutachi e" and "THE MC3" scheduled in the remainder of Dec 2024 while waiting for updates on the situation and conducting its internal investigation. Subsequently, TBS managed to speak to Nakai directly. One of the shows was eventually cancelled while he left the other as decided on 20 Jan. 

The president Ryuuhou Masamine expressed regret at this incident since Nakai had worked with them extensively over the years. As for when they will get Nakai to attend a hearing for their internal investigation, this is likely to happen within this year. It had approached both Nakai and the victim in question through their representatives since the end of last year and is trying to confirm their stances towards assisting in TBS' investigation given their existing confidentiality agreement.

- The Fuji Sankei Ladies golf tournament has been cancelled as announced on 27 Feb 2025 due to the withdrawal of the organiser Fuji Sankei Group. The event was scheduled to be held from 25 to 27 Apr and has been held 42 times to date since 1982. However, following the sponsor fallout and criticism towards FujiTV for its alleged involvement in the Nakai incident, the fate of the tournament hung in the balance before the decision to cancel was made 2 months before the event date. As for the Fuji Sankei Classic tournament for male golfers in Sep, it is still unclear if it will take place as planned.

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Drama

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Lion no kakurega
3) Sora wataru kyoushitsu

Voters Ranking Top 5

1) Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

2) Sora wataru kyoushitsu

3) Lion no kakurega

4) Hikaru kimi e

5) Houkago Karute

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Lion no kakurega
3) Sora wataru kyoushitsu

4) Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

5) Hikaru kimi e

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Lion no kakurega

2) 3000 man

Sora wataru kyoushitsu

Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

5) Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

Source: The Television

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Leading Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Kamiki Ryuunosuke - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

2) Yagira Yuuya - Lion no kakurega

3) Fujiwara Tatsuya - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Kamiki Ryuunosuke - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Yagira Yuuya - Lion no kakurega
3) Kubota Masataka - Sora wataru kyoushitsu
4) Matsushita Kouhei - Houkago Karute
5) Fujiwara Tatsuya - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Kamiki Ryuunosuke - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Yagira Yuuya - Lion no kakurega
3) Fujiwara Tatsuya - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu
4) Kubota Masataka - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

5) Matsushita Kouhei - Houkago Karute

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Yagira Yuuya - Lion no kakurega
2) Kamiki Ryuunosuke - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

3) Kubota Masataka - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

Fujiwara Tatsuya - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

5) Matsushita Kouhei - Houkago Karute

Source: The Television

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Leading Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Yoshitaka Yuriko - Hikaru kimi e
2) Shuri - Monster
3) Nanao - Munou no taka

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Yoshitaka Yuriko - Hikaru kimi e
2) Matsumoto Wakana - Watashi no takaramono

3) Nao - Ano kuzu wo nagutte yaritainda

4) Shuri - Monster

5) Adachi Yumi - 3000 man

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Yoshitaka Yuriko - Hikaru kimi e
2) Matsumoto Wakana - Watashi no takaramono
3) Nanao - Munou no taka

4) Shuri - Monster

5) Nao - Ano kuzu wo nagutte yaritainda

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Shuri - Monster

2) Yoshitaka Yuriko - Hikaru kimi e

3) Nanao - Munou no taka

4) Matsumoto Honoka - Usotoki Rhetoric

5) Adachi Yumi - 3000 man

Source: The Television

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Supporting Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Bandou Ryouta - Lion no kakurega

2) Kobayashi Toranosuke - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

3) Tanaka Kei - Watashi no takaramono

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Kobayashi Toranosuke - Sora wataru kyoushitsu
2) Bandou Ryouta - Lion no kakurega
3) Shimizu Hiroya - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
4) Emoto Tasuku - Hikaru kimi e
5) Tamamori Yuuta - Ano kuzu wo nagutte yaritainda

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Bandou Ryouta - Lion no kakurega
2) Kobayashi Toranosuke - Sora wataru kyoushitsu
3) Tanaka Kei - Watashi no takaramono
4) Shimizu Hiroya - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
5) Emoto Tasuku - Hikaru kimi e

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Bandou Ryouta - Lion no kakurega
2) Shiono Akihisa - Hikaru kimi e

Kobayashi Toranosuke - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

4) Sato Tasuku - Lion no kakurega

5) Akiyama Ryuuji - Hikaru kimi e

Source: The Television

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Supporting Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Sugisaki Hana - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

2) Miyamoto Nobuko - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
3) Hirose Arisu - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Sugisaki Hana - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Ito Aoi - Sora wataru kyoushitsu
3) Kuroki Haru - Hikaru kimi e
4) Tsuchiya Tao - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
5) Ono Machiko - Lion no kakurega

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Sugisaki Hana - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Tsuchiya Tao - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

3) Hirose Arisu - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

4) Miyamoto Nobuko - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
5) Ito Aoi - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Sugisaki Hana - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo
2) Morita Kokoro - 3000 man

Ito Aoi - Sora wataru kyoushitsu

4) Miyamoto Nobuko - Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo

5) Hirose Arisu - Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu

Source: The Television

"KING OF SING" Top 20 singers with the best singing abilities rankings as voted by vocalists (2025)

TBS music program "KING OF SING" released its rankings of top singers with the best singing abilities as voted by 122 vocalists during its broadcast on 20 February 2025. There were two rankings in terms of age groups i.e. 30s and below and 40s and above. 

Check out the lists below to see if your favourites have been included in this ranking!

Top 20 singers in their 30s and below

1) Oomori Motoki (Mrs. GREEN APPLE)

2) Ado

3) Iguchi Satoru (King Gnu)

4) Yamazaki Ikusaburo

5) Ikuta Rira

6) Fujihara Satoshi (Official Hige Dandism)

7) Yonezu Kenshi

8) Takahata Mitsuki

9) Taka (ONE OK ROCK)

10) Shimizu Miisha

11) Fujii Kaze

12) May J.

13) LiSA

14) Ayaka

15) Miura Daichi

16) Kamishiraishi Mone

17) Shirota Yu

18) Nagaya Haruko (Ryokuoushoku Shakai)

19) Aimyon

20) Ikuta Erika

Top 20 singers in their 40s and above

1) MISIA

2) Tamaki Koji

3) Niizuma Seiko

4) Oda Kazumasa

5) Utada Hikaru

6) Shimazu Aya

7) Yoshida Miwa (DREAMS COME TRUE)

8) Fuse Akira

9) Nakajima Miyuki

10) Inaba Koshi (B'z)

11) Superfly

12) Kubota Toshinobu

13) Hirahara Ayaka

14) Yamadera Koichi

15) Kuwata Keisuke (Southern All Stars)

16) Hirose Koumi

17) Hikawa Kiyoshi

18) Hirai Ken

19) Matsu Takako

20) Ishikawa Sayuri

The 122nd Drama Academy Awards (Autumn 2024) - Best Theme Song

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Nekko - King Gnu (Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo)

2) Fuujin - Vaundy (Lion no kakurega)

3) Break out of your bubble - Little Glee Monster (Sora wataru kyoushitsu)

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Nekko - King Gnu (Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo)
2) Break out of your bubble - Little Glee Monster (Sora wataru kyoushitsu)
3) Fuujin - Vaundy (Lion no kakurega)
4) Donna chiisana - wacci (Houkago Karute)
5) Ashita - Noda Emi (Watashi no takaramono)

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Nekko - King Gnu (Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo)

2) Fuujin - Vaundy (Lion no kakurega)

3) Ashita - Noda Emi (Watashi no takaramono)
4) Break out of your bubble - Little Glee Monster (Sora wataru kyoushitsu)
5) Uta wo okurou - Takeuchi Mariya (Subarashiki Kana, Sensei)

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Nekko - King Gnu (Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo)

2) Fuujin - Vaundy (Lion no kakurega)

3) Break out of your bubble - Little Glee Monster (Sora wataru kyoushitsu)

4) FOREVER - Chanmina (Monster)

5) Endless - TOMOO (Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu)

Source: The Television

Highlights from the interview of Kuroiwa Tsutomu (Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu) - Best Script for the 122nd The Drama Academy Awards

The Television conducted an interview with Kuroiwa Tsutomu who won the best script category in the 122nd The Drama Academy Awards for "Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu". Here are some highlights from his interview which includes behind-the-scenes trivia about the production of this drama:

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!

• To Kuroiwa, this drama was a brand new challenge for him as well since he had never attempted something like this in his career so far. In addition, since he made his debut as a scriptwriter in FujiTV, writing this drama felt like coming full circle back to his roots so he wanted to do something unlike the norm.

• As to why he decided to make this drama based on the theme of Japanese gods, he revealed that he had visited Ise Shrine several years ago and heard an introduction of Sarutahiko Shrine from his taxi driver at that time. He then learnt of the Sarume Shrine which honours Amenouzume no Mikoto (Hirose Arisu's character) and felt that there is a lot of interesting and deep stuff to uncover in Japanese mythology. As such, this was what led to the development of this drama.

• He commented that while many people would have heard of various Japanese gods' names, they probably wouldn't have known much beyond that. After discussing with the producer, they felt that this was an interesting topic to explore in this drama.

• As to the choice of gods to feature in the story, the first thing that was decided was to feature Sarutahiko no Kami (Sakoda Takaya's character) and Amenouzume no Mikoto as a married couple. With regard to Okitama no Kami (Fujiwara Tatsuya's character), this was because he is an enshrined deity in the inner hall of Ise Shrine and said to be considered as the same as Sarutahiko no Kami. This piqued Kuroiwa's interest and fitted the character setting of Okitama no Kami hiding his identity in the story. While thinking of the other characters, he decided to choose those who most people are familar with. As for viewer feedback that the gods had the Avengers vibe when they gathered together, Kuroiwa felt that it was good that his choices worked out well.

• Kuroiwa wrote the script with Fujiwara Tatsuya in mind as Okitama no Kami right from the start. He felt that there was nobody else besides Fujiwara who could play the role of a god and without him, this story wouldn't have been possible. He also cited how Fujiwara said the line "Boku mo kami desu" (I am also God) as simply terrific and felt that Fujiwara was so convincing in his portrayal of Okitama.

• With regard to the huge amount of lines for Okitama, Kuroiwa said that generally, he tries not to write more than three rows of lines for each character per round in his dialogues but he felt that since it was Fujiwara, he thought that longer lines would be of no issue for the latter. While Kuroiwa did feel somewhat apologetic to Fujiwara for giving him so many lines this time, he was also very impressed with how the actor was able to say his lines so effortlessly, clearly and smoothly.

• As for Hirose, he praised her for being such a cool and talented younger generation actress and wished that they can work together again in future. He cited the scene in the end when there was a confrontation between Koyume (Hirose) and Naobi Yoshimichi (Kakizawa Hayato) where she had to say the line "Detekoi" (Come out here) to him. Since this is a strong word which typically sounds awkward if said by a woman, there was a discussion with the producer as to whether they should opt for a softer-toned word to replace this. However, they decided to stick with what was in the script and felt that the effect with which Hirose delivered this was better than expected.

• The story took a sudden change in genre and direction at the end of Episode 5 when it was revealed that this was not just a police drama investigating supernatural phenomenon and that the members of Zenketsu were all gods. This was a calculated move from the start and considering that the drama consisted of 10 episodes, that was an appropriate timing for the turning point. However, the surprise would only work if viewers stayed on until Ep 5 so they had to leave various clues on a trial-and-error basis to see what worked in holding the viewers' attention and interest. He remarked that this approach probably succeeded in part due to the fact that viewers could go back to watching the drama on-demand when armed with the knowledge of later developments and could derive new joy in re-watching earlier episodes to uncover clues which they had missed previously. Unfortunately, even though Kuroiwa had told his mother to hold on until Ep 5, she actually gave up watching his drama before that so he jokingly said it was such a pity. 

• Ultimately, this drama was a mystery story packaged as a police detective story until Ep 5 and revealed to be about Japanese gods from Ep 6 onwards. To prevent this from being a stale and old-fashioned mystery drama, he had to make sure that the script was in line with the times. He also felt that although there were some words of advice for mankind towards the end, that didn't feel like preaching thanks to the fact that it was the gods who said those lines, not human beings.

• In order to make the scenes where Okitama explained to Koyume about Japanese mythology and various gods more understandable and interesting to viewers,  it was decided to make flash animations primarily based on ink paintings and supplemented with old articles and pages from the Nihon Shogi (The Chronicles of Japan - the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history). This was intended to make the viewers curious about Japanese mythology as they watched this drama.

• As for the deduction theories on social media after the broadcast, Kuroiwa was a bit concerned that some had mentioned about the characters' names incorporating that of Japanese gods right from Ep 1 but also didn't want the link to the real theme to be totally unnoticeable by viewers. It was thus hard to find the right balance along the way. 

• Since there are some parts which haven't been fully depicted in the drama, he deliberately left those to the viewers' imagination and hoped to be able to cover these if there is ever going to be a sequel.

• Kuroiwa confirmed that Okitama had not erased Koyume's memory so she retained the memories of her 3 months spent in Zenketsu. However, her memories of her days as a god were still gone.

Romaji lyrics and translation of "Puppets Can't Control You" by ONE OK ROCK (Japanese version) - Theme Song of TBS Winter 2025 drama "Mikami-sensei"

Title: Puppets Can't Control You

Artist: ONE OK ROCK

Written by: Taka / DAIDAI / Gianni Taylor / Dru Decarro / Derek Tyler Carter

Theme Song of TBS Winter 2025 drama "Mikami-sensei"

* Since the song lyrics are in English except for the opening verse, the romaji lyrics and translation (in brackets) will be for the Japanese section only. Note that the English version's opening verse is not the same as this.

senkou ka koukou de kimaru you na 

bakageta petenshi no geemu ni

jissai odorasarete kuruwasare

damasareta ageku

They want to make us pick a side

(It seems like it's been decided whether you go first or second

A stupid trickster's game

After being manipulated, driven crazy and cheated

They want to make us pick a side)

Damned if I do

It's way too late to fix it

I'll be damned if I don't

The bane of my existence

They said damn kid you gotta try

Even if you never win

You can't pretend

You'll never be happy again

Clip his wings he don't deserve that halo

I'm losing faith in everyone again

If the TV stations sell their lies on cable

Then we're so blind that we'll be tuning in

But I don't know where to start

Damned if I do

It's way too late to fix it

I'll be damned if I don't

The bane of my existence

They said damn kid you gotta try

Even if you never win

You can't pretend

You'll never be happy again

Holding on to nothing

Till it turns into something

Don't like who I'm becoming

I can't keep running

Searching for an answer

Re-reading every chapter

There's no happy ever after when it's over

Damned if I do

It's way too late to fix it

I'll be damned if I don't

The bane of my existence

They said damn kid you gotta try

Even if you never win

You can't pretend

You'll never be happy again

Observations from Video Research's Top 10 celebrities' TV CM Exposure Ranking 2024 & TV CM Deals Ranking 2024

As seen from the results below, there are some interesting observations which can offer food for thought on determining who's popular with advertisers vs. who's actually seen on TV more frequently:

• While Ayase Haruka (10) has less than half of Kawaguchi Haruna's number of CM deals (24), the total number of times which her CMs were shown and the total running time were 17% and 35% higher than the latter's figures respectively. Her total exposure time in 2024 also increased by about 4% from 2023's total of 329,115 seconds.
• Despite the fact that Kawaguchi has been the CM queen for three years in a row based on total number of CM deals, she was actually not in the top 10 for the total CM exposure ranking last year.
• Most of the celebrities in the 2023 Top 10 for the CM exposure ranking were also in the 2024 version but Kawaguchi and Yokozawa Natsuko were the only ones who came from outside 2023's top 10. On the other hand, Yoshioka Riho and Koike Eiko who were in the 2023 Top 10, did not make it to this year's ranking.
• Although some celebrities have a high number of CM deals, the actual exposure they got did not allow them to make it into the top 10 ranking in terms of total CM running time - Hashimoto Kanna, Imada Mio, Yoshioka Riho, Ootani Shohei, Hamabe Minami, IKKO, Ooizumi Yo, Suzuki Ryohei, Nagasawa Masami, Nagano Mei & Yamada Yuuki.
• On the reverse, while some celebrities may not have that many CM deals, they got a lot more exposure on TV - Degawa Tetsuro, Takito Kenichi, Suda Masaki, Yokozawa and Nakajo Ayami.
• In terms of regional differences, Ayase was gaining the most exposure in all three surveyed regions i.e. Kanto, Kansai and Nagoya. On the other hand, while Kaku Kento was No.2 in Kanto and Kansai, Ashida Mana was No.2 in Nagoya. 
• The gap in total running time was relatively consistent and small between Kaku and Ashida in all three regions but if compared to Ayase, the largest difference between No.1 and No.2 was observed in the Kanto region (62,680 seconds) as compared to the Kansai (17,400 seconds) and Nagoya (22,245 seconds) regions.
• The number of times which the CMs were aired could be dependent more on the advertisers' CM budgets, size of the companies, the length of the CM and the timeslot which the CMs were aired rather than a direct reflection of the celebrity's brand power or name value. More information is probably needed to determine if the total running time is mainly made up of shorter version CMs (15-sec ones) or those which run for at least 30-secs and higher. In addition, advertising budgets for a domestic company vs. an international enterprise could be vastly different too. Moreover, depending on the timeslot when the CM is aired, the rates could differ a lot. For example, playing shorter CMs for a higher number of times during off peak hours could actually be cheaper than running longer CMs for a smaller number of times during primetime slots. 

Top 10 celebrities with the highest CM exposure in 2024 (based on total running time of CMs) - Kanto region

Numbers behind the names reflect the number of times the celebrity's CM was aired on TV and the total running time of these CMs.

Numbers in brackets indicate the position which the celebrity got in the 2023 ranking:

1) Ayase Haruka - 18,536 times / 341,310 secs (1)

2) Kaku Kento - 15,741 times / 278,630 secs (2)

3) Ashida Mana - 16,195 times / 260,715 secs (4)

4) Kawaguchi Haruna - 15,834 times / 253,410 secs (11)

5) Degawa Tetsuro - 15,809 times / 243,070 secs (6)

6) Takito Kenichi - 12,145 times / 236,090 secs (10)

7) Suda Masaki - 12,673 times / 215,985 secs (3)

8) Yokozawa Natsuko - 10,728 times / 213,005 secs (16)

9) Nakajo Ayami - 12,546 times / 205,125 secs (9)

10) Hirose Suzu - 10,018 times / 197,025 secs (7)

Top 10 celebrities with the highest number of CM deals in 2024

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of CM deals which the celebrity had:

1) Kawaguchi Haruna (24)

2) Kaku Kento (18)

3) Ashida Mana (16)

4) Hashimoto Kanna (14)

5) Imada Mio / Hirose Suzu / Yoshioka Riho (12)

8) Ootani Shohei / Hamabe Minami (11)

10) Ayase Haruka / IKKO / Ooizumi Yo / Suzuki Ryohei / Nagasawa Masami / Nagano Mei / Yamada Yuuki (10)

Highlights from the chat session between ONE OK ROCK's Taka and Iida Kazutaka (producer of "Mikami-sensei")

There was a chat session featuring Iida Kazutaka i.e. producer of TBS Winter 2025 drama "Mikami-sensei" and Taka i.e. vocalist of ONE OK ROCK which sings the theme song "Puppets Can't Control You". In the two-part article, they talked about various things such as the story leading to their collaboration and the message they want to convey in the theme song. Given the length, I have extracted some highlights pertaining to the drama and theme song as shared below:

• Iida first came into contact with ONE OK ROCK's music in 2013, thanks to Sato Takeru's recommendation. He watched the 2016 concert "18 sai" during the COVID-19 pandemic and was deeply moved by the embedded messages of respect and encouragement which transcended the boundaries between adults and youngsters at the age of 18. With the intention to showcase a similar story like this, "Mikami-sensei" materialised after 5 years.
• Iida already had the intention to get ONE OK ROCK to sing the theme song although he wasn't confident that the band would accept his offer. 
• In response, Taka said that it was rare for such an offer to come to them. He explained that the band tends to touch on supposedly taboo or controversial themes in their music so there is this perception of dealing with them can be troublesome, whether it is justified or not. As such, they were really happy to have received this offer.

• Taka revealed that on a personal level, he is not so receptive to the idea of working with TV since young. As such, under normal circumstances, he would have said no to such an offer especially since his utmost priority is to uphold the band's policy.
• In the US, it is common for them to bring in several staff members for music playing sessions with the band when making music. Through this process, it allows the band to bring in fresh ideas from different people through a trial-and-error process and identify those whose values and ideals are in sync with them vs. those who just want to make use of and tap on the power of their brand. However, this is not something that's usually practiced in Japan and the system can only work if there is mutual respect between both parties and a relationship that's geared towards making the best stuff. 

• Iida shared that in the world of making dramas, there is also a difference in practices between the US and Japan. In the US, it is common to have multiple scriptwriters work on a single drama and the story is crafted through feedback along the way. However, in Japan, the standard practice is to have one scriptwriter be responsible for the entire drama. While Iida said that he hopes to bring in a more consultative process in making Japanese dramas going forward, he felt that he can also learn from the band's experience but acknowledged that it does take courage to adopt the input of others and be receptive to change.

• Both of them highlighted the importance of communication and how it can foster understanding and convey thoughts accurately. Even through a fictitious work like this drama or music, viewers can draw parallels between the story/lyrics and their lives which will give rise to new energy and create opportunities for discussion.

• At the time when ONE OK ROCK received the proposal for the theme song, they were in the midst of making their album "DETOX" and felt that the drama matched its theme. However, they were worried initially about how far they could go for the song to portray the drama's key theme.
• The word "puppets" in the title does not refer to just its literal meaning but also those who step up to take responsibility whenever things happen such as the president of a country or company. The thing is, there are usually bigger and stronger powers behind these figures. As such, the meaning that they want to convey through this song is that, "no matter how many puppets you change to make the public's anger go away whenever there's a crisis, we will no longer be deceived by this rigged system and listen to these puppets put up by the larger powers". Taka joked that this might come across very strongly in Japanese but the interpretation of the message should differ to a certain extent since the lyrics are in English.
• The song was written entirely in English at first. Since there was feedback that there should be some Japanese lyrics given that this is still a theme song for a Japanese drama, they wrote the lyrics in Japanese for the opening verse in the Japanese version while keeping to all-English lyrics in the original version. Taka said that it's rare for the band's recent songs to begin with Japanese and felt that it was a good idea to do this after all.
• Taka also revealed a funny anecdote about the song which he let close friends hear before the tie-up with the drama was announced. However, the feedback he got was that it was difficult to appreciate what the song was trying to convey if you just heard it on its own. Once the song was played during the ending credits of "Mikami-sensei", those friends came back to tell Taka that they finally understood what the song was about and praised its compatibility with the drama. Taka himself was convinced by what they said when he watched the ending credits and realised that the song turned out to be better than he thought.
• Iida said that it was a deliberate decision to choose a hard rock song for the drama since it is positioned as one which would break stereotypes in the TBS Sunday drama timeslot.
• Taka shared that he doesn't have a TV at home and hasn't watched a TV show in more than 10 years. However, he does watch Netflix at times. This is the first time in a long while that he finds himself "hooked" to a TV drama and is surprised by how unconventional and edgy the story is especially considering that this drama is shown on a terrestrial TV network and not an international OTT platform.