Official Website
tokai-tv.com/kazokunotabiji
Broadcast
From 11.40 p.m., Saturdays, 3 February 2018
Station
Fuji TV
Story
Asari Yusuke is a young lawyer who works for a law firm in Tokyo’s traditional working class neighbourhood. One day, a woman called Kawamura Rena visits Yusuke at the law firm and somehow knows his background. In fact, Yusuke’s parents and grandfather were brutally murdered by a man called Yanase Mitsuzo 30 years ago when he was an infant and he was left at the gruesome murder scene. This case spurred him to become a lawyer. Although Yanase claimed he was innocent at the trial, his request for a retrial was dismissed thrice and he is now serving time as a prisoner on death row. Rena makes a shocking request to Yusuke. “Please meet Yanase Mitsuzo, the man who killed your parents.” Yusuke freezes at those words. “It’s something that only you can do.” Yanase is the first husband of Rena’s mother Akane who does not have long to live because of end-stage cancer. Akane had a son Mitsuo with Yanase and Rena hopes to find Mitsuo’s whereabouts for her mother’s sake. He has been missing since the murders. Rena believes Yusuke should be able to pry the truth from Yanase. Only the lawyer in charge of a re-trial is allowed to meet a prisoner on death row. What Rena is saying is no different from wanting Yusuke, the surviving family member, to be Yanase’s lawyer and exonerate him. Yusuke tells her not to joke and sends her away. Will he be able to defend a man whom he had believed to be his parents’ enemy for many years? He wonders for a moment, but comes back to reality when his boss Sawada Yoichiro calls out, “Yusuke, it is unforgivable for a lawyer give in to emotions and decide to crush possibilities. This is the man who killed your parents.” Reminded of the duty of a lawyer, Yusuke decides to face the case. He asks Rena about the case again and hears Yanase’s background for the first time. Yusuke’s adoptive mother Yumiko is the older sister of his mother and he feels in a tumult about pursuing the case and causing anguish to the parents who have raised him like their own son. One day, Yusuke appears at the Tokyo Chuo Detention Centre. He approaches the retrial with a sense of mission as a lawyer. Shocking facts are revealed one after another but it all concerns Yusuke himself. It makes him question who exactly he is and shakes his sense of mission and his feelings.
Characters
Takizawa Hideaki as Asari Yusuke
A lawyer who approaches work with a positive attitude. He has a cheerful personality but in fact, his parents and grandfather were brutally killed 30 years ago. He was the only one who survived and was later adopted by his mother’s older sister and husband. He received love like a biological child and he grew up carefree. He learned about his parents’ case when he was a sixth grade elementary school student and set out to be a lawyer. At first, he wanted to be a judge. But he met veteran lawyer Sawada Yoichiro when he was a legal apprentice. He was greatly impressed by Sawada’s convictions as a lawyer and set his sight on becoming one. He receives Kawamura Rena’s request to defend Yanase Mitsuzo who was identified to be the murderer in the case 30 years ago, in a retrial. Although he initially felt a strong sense of aversion, he begins to approach the retrial with a sense of mission as a lawyer. As he pursues the case, he gradually comes to love Rena despite putting each other off at the start, but … …
Tanimura Mitsuki as Kawamura Rena
She asks Asari Yusuke to defend Yanase Mitsuzo, the prisoner on death row, in a retrial. She grew up learning what not to do from her mother who lived without inhibition. She meets Asari Yusuke and becomes attracted to him but … …
Yokoyama Megumi as Kawamura Akane
Kawamura Rena’s mother. She left home at the age of 17, was loose in her relationship with men and lived without inhibition. She has been diagnosed with end-stage cancer and does not have long to live.
Masuoka Toru as Asari Takanobu
Asari Yusuke’s father. A professor of a university in Kamakura. He is the brother-in-law of the Otomi family who were murder victims. He adopted Yusuke and always warmly watches over him.
Ishino Yoko as Asari Yumiko
The older sister of Otomi Haruka who was murdered. Asari Takanobu’s wife. She is a kind mother who deeply loves Asari Yusuke whom she raised as an adopted son.
Kataoka Tsurutaro as Sawada Yoichiro
Asari Yusuke’s boss at the law firm where he works. A hot-blooded man with a honest and sincere personality. He has handled many cases of wrong convictions. As a lawyer, he believes it is their job to listen to the assertions of the person who committed the crime and stand up for the rights they deserve. Yusuke respects him as the ideal lawyer. He supports Yusuke in this case and pursues the truth with him.
Endo Kenichi as Yanase Mitsuzo
30 years ago, he was sentenced to death for the murder of a family of three in Asagaya. At that time, he was a factory worker and had one misfortune after another. His wife ran away. Then he discovered he had stomach cancer. He ran about with the intention to leave his newborn son Mitsuo in the care of someone. That was when he was arrested for the murder of the Otomi family whose home he happened to be at, and he was sentence to death. Only the happiness of his son whom he had given up, sustains him now as he waits for the day of his execution.
Scriptwriter
Izumi Rei (Kozure Shinbei Series, Shiawase no Jikan)
Original Work
Chichi to Ko no Tabiji by Kosugi Kenji
Click here for photos from the press conference.
Related Post:
All text copyright © jdramas.wordpress.com.
Jdrama Weblog 
This has more detailed information. Thank you! I hope it gets subbed someday, the first episode looks interesting.