Official Website
www.nhk.or.jp/drama/sokonan
Broadcast
Sundays, 10.00 – 10.49 p.m. from 21 October 2012
Station
NHK BS Premium
Story
Kaise Rakuko who grew up in a poor family, decides to become a lawyer in order to make money. She works as a hostess in a bar to put herself through university and passes the bar exam. However, the number of legal professionals has jumped dramatically because of the reform of the judicial system, resulting in a hiring slump and inequality even for lawyers. Rakuko gets to try out at a small law firm, which is run by Sugawara Kotaro, who had been her customer at the bar. She is ordered by her senior Shoji Hiroaki to secure a suspended sentence in an assault case or she would not be hired. Anzai, the accused, is completely unrepentant, and a disturbed Rakuko tries to make his wife Takako be the circumstantial witness, but is unceremoniously rejected. Then Takako discovers that she is expecting … … Rakuko is finally employed but keeps being put in charge of cases that do not pay. While Rakuko’s ability as a lawyer is questionable, her motto is that “Law brings people happiness” and she will persist in doing something and struggle gutsily. This ends up influencing her senior Shoji Hiroaki and even Sugawara.
Characters
Motokariya Yuika as Kaise Rakuko
A lawyer at Sugawara Kotaro Law Firm. “If you become a lawyer, you’ll be rich.” Believing the words her parents had told her as a child, she got past the bar exam. A rare optimist with a pure heart in these days. Does she have the ability to be a lawyer? She does stand out above the rest for her kindness and empathy for the weak and vulnerable. Although she dreams of getting rich quick, her life of poverty continues even after becoming a lawyer.
Ichikawa Ennosuke as Shoji Hiroaki
A lawyer at Sugawara Kotaro Law Firm. An elite who passed the demanding bar exam of the old system while he was at university. He makes cool, clear-headed decisionos, but after he becomes Kaise Rakuko’s senior (‘aniben’), he is somehow thrown off his stride and finds it annoying. He and Nakado Shiori who works for Okuyama Jonouchi Law Firm used to date in the past, but some incident caused them to become estranged.
Megumi as Kubota Aki
A clerk at Sugawara Kotaro Law Firm. She got pregnant while she was a university student and had to give up a career in law to become a single mother. Sugawara, who had been Aki’s teacher during her university days, could not ignore her plight and hired her to work for him. She does her work efficiently and goes home on punctually at 6.00 p.m. to have dinner with her son, Subaru. Before she realises it, her respect for her teacher becomes love … …
Igarashi Shunji as Akaboshi Koki
A successful lawyer at Okuyama Jonouchi Law Firm and Kaise Rakuko’s fellow legal apprentice. The complete opposite of Rakuko in just about everything, he is so rich that he lives by himself in an upscale apartment builiding, but cannot help being worried about Rakuko. He always buys her meals in an attempt to express those feelings to her, but has not had luck.
Takeda Kohei as Kaise Koki
Kaise Rakuko’s younger brother. After their father ran into debt and disappeared, and their mother died, Rakuko became a surrogate parent and to this day, he is still under her control. Like their father, his irresponsible personality makes him careless with money, but he is good-hearted, kind person. Because he depends on his sister for everything, Rakuko will feel uneasy and wonder if he has caused a disaster when he appears.
Inoue Waka as Nakado Shiori
A capable lawyer at Okuyama Jonouchi Law Firm. She and Shoji Hiroaki dated more than 10 years ago but grew apart as a result of some incident. She lost her faith in men after that and now her work and pet dog are her loves. However, she meets Shoji again because of Rakuko and she starts to feel ripples … …
Otomo Kohei as Sugawara Kotaro
The head of at Sugawara Kotaro Law Firm. A former professor at a university’s law faculty, he is a warm-hearted person who set up a law firm to help his student Shoji Hiroaki and hired Kubota Aki as a clerk because he could not be indifferent to her predicament. He also picks up discarded potted plants and grows them at the office. His hiring of Kaise Rakuko is not mere coincidence but has some deeper reason … …
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