
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.

Katsu Kaishū deals with end of the Edo period. Based on Kan Shimozawa's novels "Katsu Kaishū "

The 37th NHK Taiga Drama is Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The series focuses on the life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and final ruler of the Tokugawa period. Born the seventh son of Lord Nariaki of Mito, Yoshinobu is named shogun when he is just 29 years old. With a wisdom and vision beyond his years, he tries to prolong the life of this 200-year-old dynasty which began with Ieyasu. However, he is unable to forestall the winds of revolution as clans in Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa, with the help of the Imperial Court, clamor for change.

This is the story about the a very powerful Lady Kasuga who established Ooku the inner palace.

It depicts how the winner, the Satsuma Clan, and the loser, the Aizu Clan, survive through the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration in their respective ways of life.

The series tells about the life of construction foreman Eiji and his sister. Both have a love interest: she has a boyfriend, and he has a young girl. The sister is thinking about marriage, and the brother has too strict principles to recklessly rush into the abyss of passion.


In the Kyoho era, Hayato, a shogun vassal commissioned as a traveling inspector by Tokugawa Yoshimune, adopts the guise of a ronin. Accompanied by the enigmatic Kihachi the kappa, he journeys discreetly through different provinces, administering justice to the malevolent forces...

The first in what would become Toei's most successful, longest-running bosozoku film series. It lasted from 1968 till 1972 through sixteen films.

The life of Prince Hikaru Genji, who was nicknamed "Shining" by people for his dazzling noble beauty. Based on the novel "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu.

A playboy bartender pretends to be gay in order to approach women. He is in cahoots with another opportunist, a young woman who is trying to seduce a rich married man. Their attempts at making easy money can only end tragically.

Inosuke, a former gangster, and his friends struggle to make a living as simple fishermen in this tale of chivalry and friendship among yakuza in the northern regions.

This is the Twelfth film in the series. There were seventeen Wolves of the City films between 1968 & 1974, in the main aimed at shock-value & “pinku” soft-core with sex, nudity, violence, gunplay, & a lot of mainly pointless foolishness when the biker gang coopts racist or nazi imagery, inventing a non-existent youth culture void of morality…

Set in the decadent mid-Edo period, this unconventional work depicts the story of a man who, after being pursued as one half of a double suicide, enters the Buddhist priesthood, breaks his vows, and emerges as a notorious villainous monk.

Somewhat unique as it appears to be one of the very rare appearances of master thespian Itô in a yakuza role.