Masahiko Nishimura

In the present day, the local government of Katori City is in the process of sponsoring a taiga drama about its famous historical figure Tadataka Ino, who is known for being the first person to make a map of Japan in 1821. During the process of of making the drama series, a surprising fact is discovered about the first map. That fact is that Tadataka Ino was not the person who made the first Japanese map.

In August, 1918, Ito (Mao Inoue) lives in a coastal village of Toyama with her husband and 3 children. During the summer, there wasn't much fish to catch, so her husband has been far away from home to catch fish. To support herself and her children, Ito carries goods from ships like the other women in the village. Meanwhile, the residents encounter rising prices for rice. The women are unable to feed their family due to the high prices of rice. The women ask a nearby rice store to sell rice at lower prices, but it fails. The price of rice continues to rise daily. Due to an incident, Ito and the other village women step up to the plate.

HIRAKATA a major apparel manufacturer in financial crisis, decides to launch a new brand to revive its fortunes, and brings back Yuji Fujimura (Masanobu Takashima) who left the company after a previous conflict with the president. and gathers a group of young craftsmen under his wing, including patterner Kyoko Kayeda (Akane Hotta), assistant Seita Yoshino (Hiroki Iijima), and shoemaker Yuriko Kishimoto (Miyuu Nishimura).

After the Onin War, the world is plunged into chaos. Amid this situation, heroes of the warring states begin to emerge in an attempt to unify the country and rule in these turbulent times. In the mid-1540s, there is a young wandering samurai in Mino which is strategically located between the East and West. His name is Akechi Mitsuhide. At this time, there is plenty of internal strife within the Toki clan which rules Mino. Surrounded by the Oda of Owari, the Imagawa of Suruga and the Asakura of Echizen, Mino has constantly faced the risk of invasion. Mitsuhide is pulled into battle and destroys the enemy. His bravery as well as stratagem catches the attention of Saito Toshimasa, the chief retainer of the Toki clan, and he is singled out. This man who is also known as Saito Dosan will go on to takeover the Toki and make Mino his own.

The head of the Mamiya clan committed suicide in protest against the feudal lord, Matsudaira. Matsudaira is a tyrant whose brother has appointed him to join the shogunate. The elderly Doi approaches Shimada Shinzaemon to carry out an assassination in hope of avoiding the war he feels is to come should Matsudaira get even more power. Though he initially refuses, Shimada decides to gather reliable people to assist him. But, on that fateful morning..

Shunnosuke Katagiri is a samurai and a bookworm. He receives a mission to help a daimyo move. With the assistance of Genemon Takamura and Oran, Shunnosuke Katagiri carries out his mission.

Takuminokami Asano is a handshu (lord) and he is ordered to kill himself due to a scheme by Kozukenosuke Kira. Having no time to mourn his lord’s death, Kuranosuke Oishi (Shinichi Tsutsumi) decides to take revenge on Kozukenosuke Kira. Kuranosuke Oishi plans an attack with the help of accountant Chosuke Yato (Takashi Okamura), but they don't have enough in their budget.

Takeshiro Matsuura was a Japanese explorer who was the first person to document the inner reaches of what is now known as Hokkaido. He explored the area extensively during the mid 19th century and created a map of the island that included parts which had been ignored by earlier cartographers. He visited Ainu communities and compiled records of the large numbers of the population who had been conscripted for forced labor far from their homes. Matsuura suggested the name Hokkaido for the area

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

High School student Miyui Mashio is really struggling. She can't fulfill her dream of becoming an idol and her parents are always fighting. Suddenly, she finds a genie in a bottle and through an accident, finds herself back in 1991. She realizes she is now going to school with her parents. But the problem is, her parents do not seem to get along - so Miyui will never be born! Miyui learns her father is interested in idols and so together with her mother and other girls she forms the idol group AGS16 to make sure her parents will eventually fall in love.

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.

Six directors picked a favorite song by Japanese punk rock band "The Blue Hearts" and made a short film inspired by the song.

Shinichi Tominaga is a prosecutor, newly appointed to the special investigation division for the Tokyo district prosecutors' office. He is currently busy with a case involving suspicious donations to powerful politician Yohei Tachibana. Shinichi then receives a mysterious message from his friend Samon Kondo. His friend is in charge of space development at The The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The message talks about a scandal related to space development. Samon soon goes missing after sending the message. Shinichi begins to see a connection between the two cases.

Masaatsu Naito (Kuranosuke Sasaki) successfully completes Sankin-kotai (required ritual to visit the shogun). On his way home, he hears that an insurrection by peasants has taken place in his hometown of Yunagaya. Masaatsu Naito knows that it is a counterattack by Matsudaira. He returns to Yunagaya, but finds that his castle is gone.

Residents in a town have a hard time due to the land tax and forced labor. 9 people, including Juzaburo Kokutaya (Sadao Abe), worry about the future of their town. They then set up a plan to save the town. The plan is to lend large amounts of money to han (historical term for the estate of a warrior) and distribute the interest annually to the residents, but if they're caught they will lose their lives.

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos.

During the reign of the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Yunagaya Domain in the Tohoku region is a small han. But at the han, there is a gold mine. Suddenly, Masaatsu Naito of Yunagaya Domain receives an order to perform Sankin-kotai within 5 days. Sankin-kotai is a custom that requires the daimyo to visit the shogun in Edo. Unfortunately, the time needed to visit the shogun in Edo for Masaatsu Naito is 8 days. Masaatsu Naito also learns he received the order because a high ranking government official wants the gold mine. Also, the expense for Sankin-kotai is high and the Yunagaya Domain is such a small han that it seems impossible to complete. Nevertheless, Masaatsu Naito begins an unexpected operation to complete Sankin-kotai in 5 days.

Saya Suzuki (Emi Takei) is an ordinary employee working at a hotel. She falls in love with her elite boss Susumu Tsuge (Tadayoshi Okura). Through their romance, Saya Suzuki grows as a person.

Eiko Yagami (Ryoko Yonekura) is a "Marubo", a unit of Ueno Central Police Station's Organized Crime Division which deals directly with organized gangs to try and keep the peace. However, Eiko has some sidelines: she's a moneylender to her fellow police officers without charging interest in return for information and is also willing to do the odd side job for those on the criminal side for the money. One day, Kasumi (Riho Takada), who is the daughter of Senma-gumi gang's leader (Toshiyuki Nishida), is found stabbed to death. As this threatens to pit gang against gang, Eiko and the police have to hurry and find her killer.

In this film director Yoji Yamada bows down before his teacher and role model. Yamada was assistant director on Yazujirō Ozu’s Tōkyō monogatari, a moving family portrait set after the Second World War. In his remake, Yamada has made very few departures from Ozu’s masterpiece in order to update the story of ageing couple Shukichi and Tomiko to present day Japan. Once again, the pair decides to leave their quiet lives in the country to pay a visit to their children and grandchildren in Tokyo. Once there, they discover that neither their oldest son, a doctor named Koichi, nor their eldest daughter Shigeko - who runs a beauty parlour - has time for them: both are too busy attending to their everyday concerns. Even the youngest son went his own way. The old couple feel lonely and bewildered in the fast-paced metropolis.

Four people decide to travel to Hunza, Pakistan to find paradise. Kentaro Tooma works as head of sales for a camera company. One of his clients is Jujo Togashi who owns the shop Camera Togashi. The two men are friends and become captivated by a picture with only a chair sitting in a field of grass. Kentaro and Jujo know of a 4-year-old boy Keisuke through Kentaro's eldest daughter. 4-year-old Keisuke is traumatized from being abused by his mother. Kishiko Shinohara is the owner of an antique shop. Kentaro Tooma has feelings for her.

In the year 1590, the mighty warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi is close to fulfilling his ambition of unifying all of Japan under his banner when he comes across unexpected resistance in the form of a floating fortress known as Oshi Castle. Narita Nagachika, a frivolous hedonistic fellow and unlikely candidate for the position of rebel general, finds himself in charge of defending the castle. His odds? An army of 500 men to combat Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of 20,000.

Mieko (Hitomi Kuroki) is a housewife with some problems. Her husband (Masahiko Nishimura) is indifferent to her and her daughter Sayako (Hiroko Kurisaki) refuses to go to school. One day, Mieko meets Kaori (Tae Kimura) who is divorced. Mieko and Kaori worked at a same company years ago. Kaori tells Mieko that how she was swindled out of money by a man and, because of this, Mieko loans money to Kaori. Due to the loan, Mieko, herself, begins to do part-time work at a convenience store. While at work, Mieko catches a shoplifter Yukimi (Shizuyo Yamazaki) in the convenience store. It turns out, Mieko and Yukimi get along great. Mieko, Yukimi and Kaori decide to go to a karaoke room together. At the karaoke bar, the women hear the song "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple and decide to form a rock band!

“IS” stands for “intersexual,” a term referring to people who cannot clearly be classified as male or female, and who may biologically possess characteristics of both sexes. Rokuhana's manga primarily deals with the troubles faced by the young Hoshino Haru (played by Fukuda), an intersexual who was registered as a girl at birth but has been raised as a boy. Goriki plays Aihara Miwako, a mysterious classmate who tries to get close to Haru. Inoue Masahiro has been cast as Ibuki Kenji, a member of the soccer club whom Haru begins having feelings for. Nishida Naomi and Minami Kaho play Miwako's and Haru's mothers, respectively.

Doctor Rie (Miho Kanno) is know as the Joan of Ark of Obstetrics & Gynecology. She works in a challenging environment with clinics shutting down due to lack of doctors and the system itself breaking down. Dr. Rie then helps an infertile woman conceive with a surrogate mother which is prohibited in Japan...

Satoshi Itomura is an assistant police investigator who belongs to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Scientific Investigation Team. Reenactments, fingerprint and voice data collections, profiling... His team collects scientific evidence and pieces together fragments of information in order to help build evidences. However, Itomura often does not care about the scientific approach and instead pays a great deal of attention to the things that the victims always carried with them or treasured. And he focuses on these things because they usually carry the victim’s dying wishes, understanding that last message not only helps solve the cases but also brings closure to the depressed family of victims.

A drab middle-aged man with thoughts of committing suicide and an extraordinary child prodigy plan a fake kidnap in exchange for a ransom of 10 billion yen.

Domestic drama focusing on a soon to be retired train driver and his wife.

Saru is a talented young locksmith who unlocks any kind of lock. He is, however, a complete fool when it comes to women. One day a girl Mayumi asks him to open a safe full of stolen money. Knowing nothing about it, Saru takes the money briefcase with Mayumi and finds himself with yakuza gangsters and also police in hot pursuit.

Loan shark Ginjiro Manda meets an old friend, banker Imamiya. Harassed by his manager and pestered about past mistakes, Imamiya commits suicide.

Popular TV screenwriter Mayumi Taniyama suffers from the dreaded writer's block. When producer Masaya Mukai asks for a screenplay written for him, Mayumi Taniyama offers to write one if he falls in love with her.

A drama based on the 1985 plane crash that caused 520 deaths, the worst aviation event in Japanese history.

In the early 1200s, Dogen brought Chinese Zen philosophy to Japan, and established the Japanese Zen school of Buddhism. He taught that a person was capable of realizing Buddhahood within himself, by way of Zazen. Zazen is extended hours of sitting and meditating to achieve a state of “Mu” (nothingness, or empty existence).

A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.

1944, in the depths of World War II. Toyomatsu Shimizu is a completely typical barber from a remote sea-side town who lives frugally but happily with his wife Fusae and their five-year-old son. Eventually, though, the army beckons and he is drafted. One day an officer on the battle-field orders him to kill a captive U.S. soldier. Although Toyomatsu lacks the spirit to kill the man, and only wounds him in the arm, the victorious U.S. soldiers will not accept this, and Toyomatsu is arrested and tried as a war-criminal. And he receives the cruelest sentence possible...

A former TV presenter is murdered. On the same day, two police officers from the Metropolitan police Special Mission Task Force, Sugishita Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) and Kameyama Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki), are guarding a female Diet member, Katayama Hinako (Yoshino Kimura). The pair identifies explosives and saves her life. From the clues left at the scene, Sugishita builds up his case and finds a connection between the murder of the TV presenter and the attempted murder of the Diet member. During a painstaking investigation, the savage murder case of a young overseas volunteer five years earlier emerges in the background, and the pair prevents indiscriminate murder at the Tokyo Big City Marathon event by suppressing the perpetrator.

Hisashi was once a member of a motorcycle gang. Now he plays pachinko everyday with his live-in girlfriend, Junko. He has a habit of "huffing" paint thinner. His debts accumulate every day. Hisashi's old friend from the gang, Ozawa is a loan shark. He persuades Hisashi to join his easy-money-making scheme, "Quit inhaling paint thinner and score big with me!" Hisashi's dead-end life is made up of the same things that symbolize contemporary rural Japan: Karaoke clubs, pachinko parlors, ATM loan machines and discount outlets along a highway. In this ordinary place that is just like hundreds of other small towns in Japan, Hisashi sees the darkness. Darkness that is out of the reach of neon lights along the highway. In the vacuum of this darkness, life repeats itself endlessly. Hisashi has a flashback of a paint-thinner trip he once had. The hallucination tempts him to the other side. Tantalized, he asks himself, "Can I really go?

A man who is content with his life - decent job and wonderful wife - suddenly faces the crisis of marriage when he finds out his wife is about to have an affair. As he's too embarrassed to turn to people around him, he starts posting questions on a message board on internet asking for advice. My wife is going to have an affair this week. What should I do? Based on a true event, this heartwarming comedy follows his path to try to find the meaning of marriage and the way to rebuild his family. Life is not always as it seems like. You always have to look what is underneath, otherwise you'll miss some important thing... --Fuji TV

The drama revolves around Okinawa's Churaumi Aquarium, which opened in 2002 and was the largest in the world until 2005. Tokito Saburo stars in the drama as the aquarium's director. The story begins when he announces the plans for the aquarium's 7500-ton main tank, inspired by a boy fighting an incurable illness in a Hokkaido hospital. (Source: Tokyograph)

Shinichi Kudo returns as the young Conan to investigate a murderous letter sent to a beauty pageant winner who demands affection.

The series depicts the relationship between two aspiring classical musicians, Megumi "Nodame" Noda and Shinichi Chiaki, as university students and after graduation.

In order to uphold his title of High School Detective, a teen sleuth must protect his classmates from kidnapping after receiving a threatening letter.

Live action adaptation of the manga series. Hanada Ichiro is a mischievous boy, who attains the ability to see and talk to the supernatural after an accident to the back of his head. Notes: This original book is the big hit comic in Japan called "Boy Meets Ghost" written by Makoto Isshiki (published by Kodansha). In 2002, the animation of this book was broadcasted by the NTV net, and received the best animation award of Tokyo International Animation Fare in 2003 and the best long animation award of the 8th Asian Television Award.

Two Osaka comedians, Makoto (Tomomitsu Yamaguchi) and Kinta (Go Morita), are riding bicycles in Tokyo when they're hit by a dump truck. They regain consciousness in 1945, but not of their own bodies. Somehow, their souls have been transported into the bodies of two tokkotai (special forces, or "kamikaze") pilots. Having grown up in a peaceful, carefree Japan, the two comedians experience severe disorientation at having to suddenly deal with the realities of war. They attempt to escape their squadron, knowing that Japan will eventually lose the war, but are nevertheless moved by the young men they meet, all of whom have very different opinions about their fate and the responsibilities that have been placed upon them.

Everything started when a high school couple, Chiyomi and Minami had a mysterious and ominous fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant… “If you stay close to him, he will become great and the two of you will be together for a long time. However, when the two of you drift apart, horrible thing will happen”. Just as the prophesy, on the very day when Minami decided to leave Chiyomi, a magical curse struck Chiyomi. Believe it or not, it shrunk her into a size of merely 16 cm tall! What would happen when a tender boyfriend and a miniaturized girlfriend secretly starts living together?

Wonderful Life is a Japanese drama series aired in Japan on Fuji TV in 2004. It stars Takashi Sorimachi, Kyoko Hasegawa, Norito Yashima, and Ken Horiuchi. Kirishima, played by Takashi Sorimachi, is the most famous baseball player in Japan. He is forced to retire early due to injuries. His family abandons him and he decides to spend his time coaching at a local young boys baseball team. The team is verging disbandment because they had not won one single game. Takashi plays the popular baseball player who gives kids the hope that "dreams come true", but in reality he is arrogant and a selfish flirt who spends his money pointlessly. Mizuki, played by Kyoko Hasegawa, wants to become a lawyer. Her brother plays on Kirishima's baseball team, but she can't stand Kirishima.

As a former manager of a top hotel, Seiji has been entrusted with the reopening of a hotel in the high plains that has been boarded up and closed for years. With a budget of 20 million, he begins to hire interesting characters to work there and rebuild the hotel. However, his attempts to get a top chef to draw customers fail. The staff members begin to worry about the hotel's future and try to leave, but at precisely that moment, an elderly man who used to be a chef at a top hotel pays a visit. Will this mean success for Seiji or just add to his troubles? --TBS

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2003 Spring Special" presents five tales. 1. Kao wo Nusumareta (My Face was Stolen) - starring Inagaki Goro 2. Rental Love - starring Iijima Naoko 3. Oikaketai (I want to Chase [Him/Her]) - starring Kyono Kotomi 4. Chozeikin Taisaku Satsujin Jiken (Countering Excessive Taxation Murder Case) - starring Nishimura Masahiko 5. Kage no Kuni (The Country of Shadows) - starring Sakurai Sachiko

Toko (Fukatsu Eri), decides after she turns 30 that she is all but ready to give up on any future career hopes or romance, so she turns to the bottle for comfort. She knows that this isn't the best thing, but can't find the strength right now to do anything except choose the easy way to do things. This causes her to start getting down on herself. Luckily though, she doesn't give up hope completely, and tries to take things as they come. Which proves to help to some degree. Suddenly one day, a guy by the name of Kotaro (Tsutsumi Shinichi) comes along. Like Toko, Kotaro hasn't had much luck at work either. Even so, this is still the same guy that Toko liked when she was younger.

The concept of the show is like a Mary Poppins set in modern Japan, with Mama Shingo entering a client's home and resolving family discord. In the first episode, Shingo Mama visits the Nagashima family and the client is the mother, Sayuri. The family here was not on good terms, with the father, eldest daughter Hikaru and eldest son Ken having various problems, including Sayuri, who is in the last month of pregnancy and is very depressed. In addition, the wandering student Dekouchi-kun has lingering feelings for his girlfriend, whose heart has already left him. Shingo Mama is a story about the Nagashima family and the people around them who struggle to smile and make them happy so that they can say "oh-ha!" with a smile.

Kubozuka plays Araki Ryunosuke who starts working at a host club called "club NO.1" to pay his debt.

Matsushima Nanako grew up in a very poor family and is thus determined to marry a rich man so that she will never have to go through poverty ever again, and is named the "gokon queen" in her quest to find her man. Tsutsumi Shinichi is a brilliant academic (Fields prize winner - Nobel Prize equivalent in Mathematics) who gave up his studies to take over his deceased father's fish-shop. They meet through a doctor's "gokon" (group date) and she falls in love with him under the mistaken assumption that he is a very rich man

Togashi, an enthusiastic marathon runner and his wife are occupied with their daughter Mayumi's grade school entrance examinations, but he becomes jobless when his company folds. To regain his confidence Togashi decides to join the marathon that is taking place on the very day of his daughter's examination and the all important interview.

A meek agent at the Showa Life Insurance company receives a phone call from a customer who says that she's planning to commit suicide and wants to know if her policy will pay out. Concerned about her safety, the agent visits her house only to find that her young son has hanged himself. As he investigates further, more and more people connected with this family start having "accidents," and if he's not careful, he might be next.

Nowadays, kids have their parents wrapped around their fingers. While they appear to despise their parents, they are actually insecure and want someone to give them love, guidance, and support. Although Katsura is sometimes absent-minded, she is a strong, independent woman. Junichiro proposes to her for the second time in 30 years. During this 30-year span, Junichiro was widowed three times, and fathered four children. Katsura agrees to move into the Aoki household as a live-in housekeeper and marry him only if his children learn to love her. This is a comedic and sometimes touching story about Katsura's experiences as she tries, in her own way, to win the children's hearts and trust.

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II.

What happens when the Prime Minister of Japan suddenly has the lowest approval ratings in history? Tamura Masakazu plays an unpopular Prime Minister who faces daily protests of citizens, inside betrayals, and the decision of a new Chief Cabinet Secretary. He makes an unprecedented selection, choosing his daughter's private tutor, who is only in his 20s and not even a politician! Will the Prime Minister be able to turn his ratings around, or will he be forced to resign? This drama focuses on the government of Japan, with a comedic twist.

In this made-in-Japan drama/comedy/gangster movie from director Juzo Itami a star actress, Biwako (played by Nobuko Miyamoto), is the sole witness to a grizzly murder. The cops persuade Biwako to play the bait to catch the killers. Two veteran detectives are assigned to protect her at all times, and as the film progresses the guardians have no choice but to deal with the overly dramatic, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing ups-and-downs of Biwako's life. Beautifully shot and dynamically structured in a way that only the Japanese are capable of, Marutai reminds us that sometimes the most loyal friendships are formed under the darkest circumstances.

Three close friends realize, at the age of 40, that maybe it's time to think seriously about getting married. Employed by an advertising agency, each struggles with his own weakness-one consistently strikes out with women, while the second can't seem to break his attachments to his mother, and the third is an unabashed playboy. This adult comedy exposes the humorous views and sobering misconceptions of marriage by single men today.

A radio play is going to go on air at a Tokyo radio station. It is a weepy melodrama written by housewife Miyako, who is the winner of the competition run by the station. Suddenly, the hot-tempered lead actress Nokko decides she wants the name of her character to be Mary Jane and not Ritsuko. That leads to the chain of events which changes the play completely.

Hinata Mochizuki (Arisa Mizuki) is a superstar in the pop music scene, and Kenta Yamabe (Masato Hagiwara) is a very ordinary office worker. One day, the two meet, and then fell in love. However, due to the influence of various external factors, the relationship between the two does not go smoothly.

Furuhata Ninzaburō is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes in 2006. It was written by Japanese playwright Kōki Mitani and is often referred to as the Japanese version of Columbo. The series is a police detective drama starring actor Masakazu Tamura as Furuhata Ninzaburo and Masahiko Nishimura as his stereotypically bumbling sidekick, Shintaro Imaizumi. The program aired weekly and featured a guest villain each time, usually a famous talent in Japan. Pop-stars like SMAP, television hosts like Sanma Akashiya and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki have been featured on this program. It was one of the most popular television dramas in the history of Japanese television, having spawned several seasons and TV specials.

This is a story of two physicians who are complete opposites. Although he's a skilled surgeon, Dr. Shiba does not believe that every life is worth saving, but is willing to perform any surgery for the right price. On the other hand, Dr. Ishikawa is an idealist who believes that doctors should treat all patients equally and fight to protect every person's right to live. Therefore, Ishikawa quickly becomes liked by hospital staff while Shiba continues to make enemies.