Atsuko Maeda

Ryōmaden is the 49th NHK Taiga drama. It was shown on NHK from January 3 to November 28, 2010 spanning 48 episodes. The story centers on the life of 19th-century Japanese historical figures Iwasaki Yatarō and Sakamoto Ryōma. It has been announced that the series will be aired in several other countries, for example Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Sato Tomoko leads an ordinary life with her husband and young child. One day, she defies the rules at the company where she works part-time to supplement the household income, and is fired. Tomoko is in her 40s, a high school dropout and has no qualifications. How is she to get a job? She happens to find out about the huge pay and high winning rate of members of the city, townand village councils through a TV programme. Equating huge pay with family happiness, the foolhardy Tomoko quickly decides to run for the city council. Her rival in the election race is Todo Makoto, who comes from a long line of politicians. Hirata Kazumi, a former star political journalist at a newspaper and a friend whose child attends the same nursery school, is inspired by Tomoko’s energy and ability to unify people, and becomes her supporter.

Inspector Zenigata takes on cases in Japan.

It follows a group of people who are still living in temporary housing 12 years after a natural disaster called "Nani" destroyed their town.

High school student Shun Takahata is bored. Bored with the day-to-day monotony of school and life, he prays for change, for something exciting. Suddenly, he and his classmates are forced to play deadly children's games and facing terrifying creatures from a talking Daruma doll to a sharp-clawed lucky cat.