Official Website
www.fujitv.co.jp/kiranatsuko
Broadcast
From 10.00 p.m., Thursdays, 21 July 2016
Station
Fuji TV
Story
Career woman Kira Natsuko was a successful and formidable creative director at Toho Advertising. She got married to Koyama Kotaro just before 40 and had a baby. Three years later, she returns to the workplace thinking that she would naturally be assigned to the creative department again. However, the situation has drastically changed. The agency is in a slump and there is employee turnover. Natsuko is appointed to head the business development department which is something that she never imagined. Unhappy with this, Natsuko takes out her frustration on the senior managing director Saito Ryoichi, but he points out that she has been absent for three years. In fact, Takagi Keisuke, who was her assistant three years ago, is now the creative director. Natsuko has to steel herself as she heads to the business development department. The staff all seem to have their own idiosyncracies. Furthermore, the department is a poor performer and has not even met 10% of its quota in the first half of the year. Yoneda Toshio explains that the department cannot get new advertising clients and has difficulty keeping existing clients because the company has failed to keep up with digital development. The mood is one of half resignation. Natsuko emphasises that they have to be persistent with clients. At that moment, her handphone rings. It is time for her to pick her son Sota up from nursery school. Entrusting her staff to pick out clients, she leaves the office and slips into the school just in time. A young mother Yoshida Chika speaks to Natsuko about Sota’s fight with a little girl over a toy. Natsuko scolds Sota, but a babysitter Sakabe Miyuki slaps the little girl. She says that she takes care of the little girl during the mother’s business trips and hands Natsuko her staff card. When Natsuko tells Kotaro about this, she is told to ask his mother if she is going to leave their son in someone’s care. Natsuko has to face a series of issues that erupt as she struggles to juggle both work and her family. Not wanting to get the help of her mother-in-law, she hires Miyuki as Sota’s babysitter. But Miyuki’s presence ends up causing Natsuko’s happy family to drift apart. At the company, her confidence is shattered and she gets frustrated. Before long, she and her husband become estranged and she faces a crisis at home too.
Characters
Matsushima Nanako as Kira Natsuko
A star performer when she was the former creative director of Toho Advertising, a major advertising agency, she returns to the company for the first time in three years after marriage, maternity and childcare leave. However, contrary to her wishes, she is ordered to head the business development department surrounded by idiosyncratic subordinates. She starts to have disagreements with her husband because of hectice housework and finds herself assailed from all sides both at her workplace and at home.
Matsuda Ryuhei as Takagi Keisuke
The current creative director of Toho Advertising. He was Kira Natsuko’s subordinate during the time she was the creative director and was disparaged by her in a past project. This still sticks in his mind and he wants to make a display of how he has matured. When Natsuko becomes the head of the business development department, he is teamed up with her despite his reluctance.
Harada Taizo as Koyama Kotaro
Kira Natsuko’s husband. The head of the urban development department of a construction company. Natsuko was a stranger who collapsed of heatstroke and they got married after he tenderly nursed her back to health. He is a good husband and also a good father. He initially expressed understanding of her return to work after childbirth, but they become estranged … …
Ito Ayumi as Sakabe Miyuki
The babysitter hired by Kira Natsuko. Because she is capable and Natsuko’s son is very emotionally attached to her, she wins Natsuko’s trust. But beneath her kind, gentle appearance, lies a hidden secret … … And the happy marriage between Natsuko and Kotaro begins to break down.
Ishimaru Kanji as Saito Ryoichi
The senior managing director of Toho Advertising. He was the person who placed Kira Natsuko in the business development department. He speaks to her in a direct, harsh manner, but at the same time, also shows a kind, caring side. This could be his scheme because he seems to constantly keep watch on her.
Isao Itsuji as Yoneda Toshio
The deputy of the Toho Advertising’s business development department. Because he is devoted to sales, he is not amused that Kira Natsuko, who was a creative director, has become his boss. He is proud that he knows the business and even criticises Natsuko.
Matsubara Chieko as Koyama
Koyama Kotaro’s mother and Kira Natsuko’s mother-in-law. Because she is a housewife and mother of those good old days, she believes “women should protect the family”. She is displeased that Natsuko has gone back to work after her childcare leave.
Scriptwriter
Inoue Yumiko (Isan Souzoku, Hirugao, Pandora Series)
Click here for photos from the press conference.
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