Always Smiling

Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.

Centered around typical Japanese food, a solitary salesman travelling through the country for business purposes, eats at its various establishments and experiences the various delicacies of Japanese cuisine.

In the early Meiji era, Shujiro, once known as an undefeated samurai, decides to participate in a deadly survival game to save his family and villagers.

A sexy renegade male chauvinist rock singer by day, a bossed around, lousy dressed and demurring husband by night. Yuichi, the handsome, sexy, and a great rock singer, is known by his fans as 'The Wolf', a fearlessly independent musician who just couldn't care less about what others think of him. In reality, however, Yuichi is a lousy dresser, wears thick glasses and is totally devoted to his hidden girlfriend. Trouble ensues when he decides to marry in secret as he must fight to keep up his image while balancing his private life which grows ever complex as he is introduced to his overbearing family in law....

Yusuke Nogi of Ryosho's Energy Development Division said that 10 times the official down payment was mistakenly sent to GFL, a local infrastructure company involved in a solar energy plant to be built in the Balkan Republic in Central Asia. Suspected of involvement, he heads to the Balkan Republic to collect the difference of $90 million. With the cooperation of his CIA friend Sam, Nogi obtained information that the terrorist al-Zaer had laundered the full amount of the contract money into diamonds and brought it out.

Saka no Ue no Kumo is an NHK 21st Century special drama which was aired over three years starting from November 29, 2009. The series runs 13 episodes at 90 minutes each. The first series, with 5 episodes, was broadcast in 2009, while series two and three, each with 4 episodes, were broadcast in late 2010 and 2011. While most episodes were shot in Japan, one of the episodes in series two was shot in Latvia. The TV series is based on the novel Saka no ue no kumo by Ryōtarō Shiba and adopted by Hisashi Nozawa. The theme song of the drama series is titled "Stand Alone". It was composed by Joe Hisaishi, written by Kundo Koyama and performed by British soprano singer Sarah Brightman.

Former delinquent turned unconventional prosecutor Kohei Kuryu shakes up the legal world with his street-smart instincts and unorthodox style, clashing with ambitious colleague Maiko Amamiya while his relentless pursuit of justice gradually transforms those around him.

When the entire world blacks out for two minutes and seventeen seconds, everyone sees a flash of their own future 6 months from the present. For some, the future is hopeful, while for others, it is unexpected. For a few, it doesn't seem to exist. Knowing their fate will alter each person's life, destinies will be changed.

The 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?

Three childhood friends from a small town arrive in Tokyo, only to be consumed by "devilish" obsessions, from desire and debt to prostitution, drugs, sexual violence, and manipulative cults, pushing their dreams and friendship to the breaking point.

Shomuni, that's the common name given to General Affairs Section 2 of a trading company. Here are six women who have ended up in this department known as "the dump" for office ladies. But Chinatsu Tsuboi (Makiko Esumi) declares that the value of woman is equal to the number of men. With her as the central focus they create a totally new type of office lady drama that does away with those heartless men still caught up in worn-out social ideas and the class system within the company.

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.

He lost his land, his father, and was torn from his mother. Lonely and wounded, young Takechiyo thought he'd live out his days quietly as a hostage. But fate had other plans. Inspired by Mikawa warriors, he becomes a minor lord and dives into a war-torn world ruled by monsters like Nobunaga and Shingen.Life-or-death moments, miscalculations, and no time to breathe—what will you do, Ieyasu?

A struggling lawyer, Kenji Sakuragi, takes a position at private school Tatsuyama Gakuen to pay off his debts. Kenji decides to try to turn this hopeless school into one of the elite institutions in Japan to help rejuvenate his career. His barometer of success will be to get five of his students admitted to the prestigious Tokyo University the following year. But rather than cramming them with lots of general information, his down-to-earth class concentrates on unknown techniques for passing the entrance examination and how to live a good life in these turbulent times. His refreshing outlook and strategy may just be what is needed to turn around the future prospects of himself and his students and teach the rest of us a thing or two as well!

The life of an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As consolation, she's given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband's electronics company.

In 1930 and as a young child, Tsuneko Kohashi lives at Enshu in Shizuoka Prefecture. She has a happy life with her parents and two younger sisters. Things change after her father dies from tuberculosis. Her father asked Tsuneko Kohashi to take care of the family in his place. Due to financial difficulties, her mother Kimiko decides to move the family to Tokyo where Tsuneko's grandmother lives.

Two transfer students, Takashi Mitsuhashi and Shinji Itō, tired of their boring normal life and unpopularity, decide to take their arrival at a new school as an opportunity to reinvent their image, and become delinquents. The duo set out on various misadventures to become the greatest delinquents in all Japan!

After participating to a previous show where they have to bet or be challenged to any kind of competitions, the losing members of the Gaki no Tsukai are selected to spend 24 hours in a setting which they have no knowledge of the theme nor the course of the events. They are exposed to various absurd and crazy situations nonstop for 24 hours and must refrain from laughing. If they do so, hang-men appear and hit the rule breakers with a weapon (the weapon varies every year).

Although 23 year old Yamada Naoko is a "super" magician, she is continously fired and constantly hounded by her landlady for the rent being late. After being fired once again, her boss shows her an ad of a physics professor, a non-believer of all things magical, offering money to anyone who can prove to him that magic is real. Desperately needing the money, Naoko accepts the challenge, which is how she comes to meet Professor Ueda. Falling prey to her simple magic tricks, Ueda is impressed, and enlists Naoko to help him uncover the tricks behind a local cult. Their hilarious antics, along with those of police officer Yabe, leads them onto further mysteries, all with tricks needing to be solved in sort of an "X-Files" meets "Scooby-Doo"...

Umechan Sensei is a Japanese television drama series. It debuted on April 2, 2012. It is about a girl named Umeko Shimomura who, despite being overshadowed by her talented older brother and sister, and despite being thought of as a clumsy child, decides to follow in her father's footsteps and become a doctor. It is the 86th NHK Asadora.

Kekkon dekinai otoko, known in English as He Who Can't Marry, is a 2006 Japanese drama broadcast by Fuji TV. The theme song is "Swimmy" by Every Little Thing. The drama was produced by Kansai Telecasting Corporation and Media Mix Japan.

Yae no Sakura is a 2013 Japanese television series. It is the 52nd NHK taiga drama. The story focuses on Niijima Yae, who is portrayed by Haruka Ayase.

Professor Shiro Sakaki, a butterfly researcher, confesses to turning six young boys, including his own son Itaru, into "human specimens."

Tokyo Bay Water Police, formed to combat rising maritime crime in under-patrolled waters contrasting land's high-surveillance success, unites a fractured team of officers—a veteran leader, an ambitious transfer detective, and a skilled marine engineer—whose clashing backgrounds evolve into collaborative resilience as they solve coastal crimes and protect Tokyo’s waterways.

There exists a legendary team of surgical experts in Tojo University Hospital that specializes in the Batista procedure - one of the most difficult cardiac surgeries with the survival rate only at 60%. Ever since its formation, this team has shocked the country by having 27 consecutive post-operative successes, virtually unheard of in the medical community. They basked in the glory until three of the most recent procedures resulted in consecutive deaths on the operating table. Taguchi, a psychosomatic medicine specialist, has been entrusted with the investigation but is in over his head because of his soft nature and having to deal with skills beyond his realm of expertise. Then arrives Shiratori, a cocky Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare investigator. He not only labels Taguchi naive, but speaks with confidence that this is a murder, and the murderer is within this team of elites. As the mystery unfolds, so does the complicated affiliation between each of the seven team members.

Former detective Tatsuhiko Kinosaki forms a private team to search for missing persons overlooked by the police, while secretly seeking to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of his wife.

In 18th-century Edo, Tsutaya Juzaburo rises from a poor background to become a leading publisher. Despite political changes threatening his career, he works to shape Edo’s cultural scene through innovative books and collaborations with artists.

M, a mystery writer, has a girlfriend of five years named F, who disappeared on Halloween night. When a woman comes and claims to be her sister, M begins the search for his girlfriend. Along the way, the people he meets describe a woman very unlike the F he knew.

A popular high schooler and his oddball friend help a shy girl get rid of her bullies by attempting to make her the most popular girl in school.

Sherlock has a peculiar character flaw. She does not open her heart to strangers. She is Japanese, but was born in Britain. She now works as an investigation consultant for the police department. Wato Tachibana is an excellent surgeon and is guided by the principal of justice. Sherlock and Wato Tachibana get to know each other through a case and begin to rely on each other.

The world is ruled by spirits, goblins, and all manner of strange creatures. Human beings are persecuted, to the very point of extinction. One day, a golem and a lone human girl meet. This is a record of the pair, one a member of a ruined race, the other a watchman of the forest. It tells of their travels together and of the bond between father and daughter.

Natsumi takes a job at Kitchen Macaroni, a family-run restaurant known for its omelets, pretending to be the fiancée of the owner's eldest son. Though initially met with skepticism by the staff and family, she gradually wins them over.

Haru Satonaka is the captain of an ice-hockey team, a star athlete who stakes everything on hockey but can only consider love as a game. Aki Murase is a woman who has been waiting for her lover who went abroad two years ago. These two persons start a relationship while frankly admitting to each other that it is only a love game. …The result is the unfolding of a drama of people with their respective pasts and with their pride as individuals.

After a botched robbery at the Kurokawa Financial Company leaves security guard Satoru Aizawa (Nagase Tomoya) fatally wounded, a freak lightning strike pulls him back from the brink of death, leaving him with the unwanted ability to see the dead. While hunting for the truth behind the heist that claimed his best friend's life, he crosses paths with Toranosuke Kihara (Okada Junichi), a cynical freelance detective who shares his strange gift. The two former strangers form an unlikely partnership, navigating the Tokyo underworld to settle scores for the living and find peace for the restless spirits left in the wake of the city's crimes.

Taro Yamada is a scholarship student at Ichinomiya High School. He’s smart, athletic, and handsome—so everyone assumes he’s wealthy. In reality, he lives in poverty with his mother and six younger siblings in one small room, and his father Kazuo is an absent wandering artist. Taro works part-time to support the family. Together with his best friend Takuya Mimura and classmates, Taro navigates comedic and touching moments. Through friendship, romance, and family bonds, the series asks what true happiness really means. It’s a heartwarming coming-of-age story.

The eleventh entry in the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series. Yuko Murikami stops by a shrine to pray for the new school year. Yuko accidentally breaks the bell and drops it on top of a turtle's head. Because she is the only person that stopped by the shrine in a long time, he grants her the power to become a superheroine, based on another ancient deity. It is her job to protect her neighborhood from the threats it faces. By yelling "Cosmo Magic! Métamorphose!!", she transforms into the Masked Beauty Poitrine!

A 10-part omnibus drama by 10 different scriptwriters on the theme of fathers and their sons and daughters.

Single father Eiji runs a flower shop. A blind woman passing by changes his life forever, but their relationship quickly turns complicated.

When Okita Kazuaki was starting out as a doctor, he was forced to resign from the hospital. He left his girlfriend Danjo Mifuyu behind and went to the US alone. 10 years go by and he comes back as a surgeon with outstanding skills to save his former teacher from illness. His teacher is none other than his ex-girlfriend’s father. In the time that Okita was away, Mifuyu had married his own good friend Masao, who is now the deputy director and the heir of the hospital. To make matters worse, this friend was the one who plotted to drive him out form the hospital 10 years ago. Okita has to face all sorts of ordeals to save his teacher. But he never gives up amid the swirl of love, desire, friendship, jealousy and pride. Okita may be awkward but deals with patients with all his heart. His way of life gets the people working at the hospital to start asking themselves what real healthcare is.

The 61st NHK Asadora Drama is Asuka. Set in Kyoto in the home of a traditional Japanese candy-maker, Asuka is the story of one young girl's dream to one day walk in her father's shoes and become a top candy-maker in the male-dominated world of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). Asuka grows to be a healthy, adventurous young girl with a deep curiosity and, a desire to become a candy-maker like her father. This NHK drama is one of the best in years with an excellent cast, a well-developed story based on extensive research into the traditional worlds of candy making and the tea ceremony in Kyoto, and beautiful scenery and settings in Kyoto and the surrounding areas.

An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar.

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times

Inami and Tamaru work at the Public Security Mobile Investigation Unit Special Investigation Team, a team made up of specialists with different expertise. Inami tackles criminals with showy maneuvers, while Tamaru corners criminals with cool calculation. Together, the team tackles terrorists, new religious cults, military spies, secret narcotics organisations and complicit politicians.

Children go on errands all by themselves for the very first time as a camera crew follows along in this beloved, long-running reality show from Japan.

Reiko Himekawa is a female detective at the Metropolitan Police Department. Reiko doesn't come from an elite background, but she has risen fast through the ranks with hard work and gain the respect of the policeman.