Official Website
www.nhk.or.jp/drama10/sinmama
Broadcast
Tuesdays, 10.00 – 10.50 p.m. from 23 October 2012
Station
NHK
Story
In 1999, housewife Aoyama Nao could not stand the violence of her husband, Naoki, any longer. She took their 5-year-old son Ryota and ran away from home. They soon arrived at a faraway town by the sea. She starts searching for a place to live and a job to start life there, but it is not easy. No real estate company will lease a room to a woman with no job and a child. Just as Nao is at her wits end, she enters a real estate agent office where Saito Kumi, a single mother, works. Guessing the situtation, Kumi extends a helping hand to Nao. After that, Nao finds a part-time job at a sushi shop and a kindergarten for Ryota to attend, and works hard to begin life anew in this town. One day, Nao is slapped on the shoulder by a male customer while she is at the cash register. In that moment, she has a flashback of her husband’s domestic violence. She unthinkingly crouches down and is unable to move. Nao is saved by a quick-witted Kosaka Toko, the representative of the single mothers group.
Characters
Sawaguchi Yasuko as Uemura (Aoyama) Nao
She graduated from junior college and after a few years as an office lady, she married Uemura Nobuki, who she met at her company. She became a full-time housewife, but in order to escape her husband’s escalating violence, she leaves home with their 5-year-old son, Ryota. She starts a new life in an unknown place with help from various people. However, she is faced with the difficulty of being a single mother and there is a part of her that constantly lives in dread of her husband. She is also anguished by the random flashbacks that she has of his violence. Her encounter with Kosaka Toko, the representative of the single mothers’ group, brings about a big change in her life.
Tanaka Tetsushi as Aoyama Nobuki
Uemura Nao’s husband. He works for a stockbrokerage firm. At his company, he is seens as a charming hotshot. Nao had romantic notions about him and their marriage was one between co-workers. They made their home at a luxury apartment and seem to have a happy life. However, he subjects her to domestic violence, and it gets more serious each time he moves up the corporate ladder. Her departure prompts a frenzied search for her and their son.
Kutsuna Shiori as Kijima Yukino
A single mother who is in the final month of her pregnancy as she agonises whether to become a single mother or abort the child. She despises her mother who has had men go in and out of her life. While cohabiting with the man she is dating, she gets pregnant. But the man is not willing to be tied down by a child and disappears. With the encouragement of Uemura Nao and other single mothers, she becomes a single mother at 20, and joins ‘One Mothers’ Net’.
Sakai Wakana as Nanba Mizue
A single mother whom Uemura Nao gets acquainted with at the kindergarten that her son attends. She works at a bar while raising her son, Shinnosuke. Mizue’s mother was a single mother too. Hating her mother who did not have a stable life, she went up to Tokyo. She runs into her first love. An affair resulted and she gave birth to Shinnosuke. However, she decides to raise him on her own without demanding that he recognise their son. Maybe it is because of her past that makes her averse to relying on other people and the welfare system. She for some reason is gets drawn to Nao.
Hokuto Akira as Saito Kumi
A single mother who works at a real estate office for expatriates. She introduces Uemura Nao, who despairs that she cannot rent a place, to a low-cost apartment. While she appears to be a hearty, plucky woman from her appearance, she is deeply troubled. Suddenly told by her husband that he no longer feels love for her, she divorces him in frustration. She falls sick and lives on welfare. Although she has three children, she has no confidence to raise them, and continues to regret leaving one of them with her husband.
Yamaguchi Makiya as Oda Yukio
An elite salaryman. The head of sales at an IT-related company. He visits “One Mothers’ Net” in search of his missing wife.
Miura Rieko as Kajitani Yukako
A single mother of two children. Her husband passed away when she was 38, leaving behind a debt-ridden company. Tired of working out the debts and unable to find a job, she tries to turn to an online dating website while in the depths of despair, but … … She meets Uemura Nao and other single mothers at “One Mothers’ Net”. She is the docile type, but tenaciously pulls her life together again.
Takahata Atsuko as Kosaka Toko
The representative of “One Mothers’ Net”, a support group for single mothers. Naturally, she is a single mother too and has raised two daughters. She works at a small publishing company’s editorial department. Her ex-husband is a struggling musician and they are now friends. She rescues Uemura Nao who is troubled by her flashbacks and has a considerable influence over her.
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