Mariko Kaga

SMAP×SMAP

SMAP×SMAP was an ongoing weekly Japanese variety show on Kansai TV and Fuji TV starring the members of SMAP. The show began on April 15, 1996 and it aired from 22:00 to 22:54 every Monday. The show's usual ratings were higher than 20%, which is considered high since most variety shows range from 10-20%. Each episode begins a variety of skits, comedic performances, and/or games.  These are followed by Bistro SMAP, in which the SMAP members compete against each other to impress celebrity judges with their gourmet cooking.  Last is a musical performance by SMAP which may include celebrity guests, as well.

Tales of the Bizarre

Inspired by American TV movies like "Hitchcock Theater" and "The Twilight Zone," the show features multiple works with Tamori as the storyteller and actors as the main characters. While horror and supernatural themes are predominant, a variety of genres like comedy and drama are also produced. Most episodes, however, have a bad ending.

Miotsukushi

In the early Showa era, the town of Choshi in Chiba Prefecture was divided by the conflicts between the worlds of "land" and "sea". Born to Kyubei Bando, the owner of a long-established soy sauce brewery, and his mistress Rui, Kaworu was taken in by her father and raised as a prim and proper lady. As she grew up, she fell in love with Sokichi, the eldest son of an established fisherman; alas, their two families were in conflict. This is a story of pure love between two people that grew beyond the boundaries of the old customs that they were brought up with. It is a drama that depicts their turbulent journey of love and the bonds of the people from an old and established family working tirelessly to protect their naturally brewed soy sauce business through the ups and downs.

Toshiie and Matsu

The 41st NHK Taiga Drama is Toshiie to Matsu. During the turbulent Warring States Era, one man's life and career intertwined with the three great generals of Japanese history-Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. With political savvy and the support of his fiercely loyal wife, Maeda Toshiie rose to second in power in the shogunate and built up a fiefdom that encompassed Echizen, Noto and Kaga.

Princess Go

Princess Go was the youngest of the most famous three sisters in Japanese history, who each led a remarkable life in an age of turmoil and civil war. Go loses her parents in the war, marries three times, and feuds with her own sister in competing for power. Go's husband becomes the second Tokugawa Shogun and she ensures her prominence as she gives birth to a son who later becomes the third Shogun and a daughter, a wife of the Emperor. The drama describes the age of the civil war through the eyes of Princess Go, who plays a significant part in establishing the age of peace that lasts over 200 years in Japan.

Love Letter

Hiroko attends the memorial service of her fiancé, Itsuki Fujii, who died in a mountain-climbing incident. Although Itsuki's mother says that their old house is gone, Hiroko records the address listed under his name in his yearbook and sends him a letter. Surprisingly, she receives a reply, and discovers it came from his old classmate, a girl who also happens to be called Itsuki Fujii.

Yasuragi no Toki: Michi

Kashin

Centered around Masujiro Omura, who became a commander for the Choshu clan, and founded the modern Japanese millitary system.

Mission To Kill

Continuation of the popular series of films about the assassins in Edo. This show marks the return of the jidaigeki series "Hissatsu Shigotonin," which has had several seasons between the 1970s and the 1990s. The franchise came back in 2007 with a one-shot special, but this is its first full season since 1992. Makoto Fujita returns as the protagonist Nakamura Mondo, one of the "shigotonin," a team of hired assassins.

Your Hands are Whispering

This drama is an adaptation of the manga by Junko Karube about a deaf woman and her struggles with love, family and everyday life.

Happiness Comes from Eating, Sleeping and Waiting

A 38 years-old single woman Mugimaki Satoko’s life has completely changed after being diagnosed with a "lifelong" illness. She is forced to quit her job and finds an old housing complex with a monthly rent of 50,000 yen. With her landlord living next door and a sketchy cook, Satoko encounters "medicinal cuisine," a way of eating seasonal food to maintain bodily functions. A story that will warm you from the bottom of your stomach, just like a bowl of rice porridge, is about to begin!

Tokyo Bandwagon

The somewhat peculiar Hotta family runs Tokyo Bandwagon, a secondhand bookstore and cafe in the old part of Tokyo. They are a big four-generation family that is rare these days. The Hottas live by rather unusual family rules, and solve strange incidents that arise in the old town. 26-year-old Ao is the family’s second son, and a freelance tour guide. Although he is the child of his father’s mistress, he has been raised as the second son without prejudice. Ao is an irresistible playboy to females due to the gap between his frivolous behaviour and occasional melancholic expressions, but then he encounters university student Makino Suzumi and falls deeply in love with her.

Lost Paradise

Kuki Shoichiro is relieved of his position as general manager of Gendai Shobo and transferred to the research office. One day, three months after his sudden relocation, on the night of a lecture at the Culture Center at Kinugawa's request, Hisaki meets Rinko Matsubara through his introduction. The story begins a few months later, in September, in a hotel room in Kamakura.

Around 40

Ogata Satoko is a 39 years-old woman. She is happily enjoying the single life. However, things change after an alumni reunion wher she's the last single and a meet with Okamura Keitaro.

Platonic