Japanese Culture Enthusiast that loves to see J dramas, also known as Doramas, and verify the social issues and cultural keys in them. Posts on the 5th, 15th and 25th of each month
And no! It’s not a love boss situationship. In-House Marriage Honey is a drama from 2020 where two people from the same company get married without knowing they work at the same office but in different departments. Both suffer from previous relationships, and in society’s eyes , you are only going to look stable when you are married. If you don’t look stable , you will not have the chance to promote.
The couple are the stars of their own department – the office idols. The woman is too kind to notice the guys hitting on her. And the man gets jealous of her, just because she is his wife.
This Japanese drama is not boring. I find it to be amusing, due to the fact it represents the changes of japanese society since the world war 2 events.
In previous decades, the companies paid the marriage interviews so men could have a more stable home. Of course, in this scenario, the woman would be just a housewife. With the “lost decade” events and the 90s economic crisis, those dynamics changed, and the marriage interviews became a more “family thing.” The boss and company paying for those interviews became an unreasonable action.
And now, as the younger generations become a little more emotionally independent and have a more globalized mind, they find the gaps and errors and try to fix them.
However, fixing mistakes is not easy in a society used to the way things are . And also used to keeping a certain purity or stable way of doing things.
The full 7 episodes of the Drama are available on Viki.
No, there is no Mafia Love story about falling in love with the Boss!
Well, it is another story about a young girl moving to the big city of Tokyo! Somehow, it feels different because she is not looking for a big and dreamy life. She is looking for a standard and stable life. Her name is Nami.
Nami Suzuki (Mone Kamishiraishi) was born and raised in a small rural town. She doesn’t have a specific dream to pursue and she is an easy going person. As an ordinary woman, she desires to be happy with an ordinary life. She follows Kenya, who is her childhood friend and her unrequited love, and applies for a job in the supply management department of a large publishing company in Tokyo. Nami gets hired by the company, but she is assigned to work in the editorial department of a fashion magazine.
There, Nami Suzuki works with chief editor Reiko Horai (Nanao). She is a devil-like boss, who makes spiteful remarks and has a cold personality. Reiko Horai treats Nami, who doesn’t take her job seriously, in a callous manner. But, as Nami Suzuki watches her boss deal with her job, Nami begins to change her attitude toward her work.
Of course, in daily life in Japan, this is a group, and society mindset. “Don’t be different, just be a contribution to society”. Also means, You struggle to find yourself and what personality are you.
This is a mindset that comes after the recuperation from World War II. Companies promoted a family (kazoku) inside the company and outside. For that goal, they paid and arranged for housing , home appliances, and even marriage interviews with a matchmaker.
However, the 90s crisis Brought these into decline. People lost housing because they were fired. Between 1990 and 2000, it’s called the Lost Decade. Most Salarymen had to adapt to the circumstances, and the ones that couldn’t adapt, in a act of desperation, committed suicide.
Today, the ones raised in a family with the old mindset stay very stuck on what is the norm. The ones raised in a family that adapts receive the new and try to transmit the need for a change to the rest of the Japanese society or even take the Japanese society to the world.
In these dramas, oh my BOSS love not included, the old mindset is represented by the youngest and from a low class background , Nami. And the adapted mindset is represented by the female boss that comes from a high class family Reiko. Reiko’s career path against her family , due to her father not wanting her as head of the company, is affordable. She did struggle economically with anything in her life including going to live in Paris. While Nami had to save up just to afford to move across the country.
One of the biggest mindsets that changed recently was the Age of Consent Law. Previously it was 13 years old and was one of the lowest in the world,today, it is 16 years old . One of the biggest consequences of these changes is the dramatic increase of Sexual harassment case, such as the 22 people claimed experienced sexual assault or harassment by a film director or producer, on March 13th.
Hello ! Today the Drama is “Love’s Phantom” (2021) available on VIKI . Why a phantom? The male protagonist is the manager of the event floor in a fictional Hotel in Japan. He walks inside the hotel but none sees him until he is already working. Like a human being, he is supposed to eat but none ever sees him eat. He never socializes or hangs out. So workers at the hotel call him a ghost.
The female protagonist is naive and recent in the work class society. She grew up in the rural city with her grandmother.
And yes, if you read my post regarding “coffee and vanilla” , the plot is almost identical. Fast and Furious romance , one minute they are sharing the first kiss, next minute they are already living together.
Of course, all situations in real life depend on the person’s decision. Even when the entire family and friends are against it. In a personal perspective, I went against my bestfriend wedding engagement (at least to me she was my bestie). I did it because she was giving up on her romantic dream of the romantic proposal and a romantic dreamy wedding. She was doing this to compensate for the really long previous relationship that failed because the guy cheated on her. Well, I found out because the mistress was an old acquaintance of mine ( social media thank you). After a few months, she was getting married to this new guy ( Who has the sick personality of a psychopath).
The week after the marriage ceremony, which I went anyway to give my support no matter what, I was accused of stealing the groom’s neck tie. In Portugal, there has been a twisted new “tradition” (if I can call it that!). It involves getting a few cloth accessories from the bride and groom and doing a small auction to sell them and help with marriage expenses. I found those auctions to be a hypocritical event , so I left the room and went to watch the kids play. I didn’t even see the necktie or who “bought” it and I know the groom doesn’t really enjoy me being a headstrong woman. Even if I saved his bride once, it still doesn’t count for anything. Being accused of something I didn’t do was cherry on the top of the cake.
My supposed “bestie” never talked to me again. But I do hope she is happy and the kid she had.
However, I wanted to clarify that sometimes in real life, it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. But all I wish is you live a life with no regrets and full of joy.
Back to the phantom…
Like 70% of all Japanese dramas it possesses less than 15 episodes. Of course, depending on the type of story, the Japanese find it difficult to actually do storytelling. They enjoy being straight to the point, which damages the plot of the Drama. Even if some dramas are based in Manga.
These types of plots can be a little exhausting by the lack of content. However, as professional actors and actresses, this type of plots also are damaging because they are stuck on a loop of never ending ordinary characters. The characters change name and family background but their personalities and ability to love stay the same. There is no Challenge!
Luckily, lately the Japanese drama world has become more serious and demanding, which can bring a lot of difference in the future. And maybe l, more world relevance.
This Drama “love’s phantom” is a little disappointing in representing Japanese society. It just cringes and romantic fans. It doesn’t have substance.
In my honest opinion, it was just screen time for the opening music “dreaming” by the J01, a BTS Japanese version, selected by the “Produce 101”, a South Korean entertainment event and TV show , which was also present in Japan and China. Although, in China, there was a little scandal about corruption and bribery. They want to duplicate de effect in Japan but I guess its slow not the came as BTS.
I leave in the written post the music from J01 “Dreaming”.
First Love: Hatsukoi (Netflix / 2022) – Yae Noguchi
Before I start, I delayed this post for a few days due to the high peak of work. I am sorry for it.
To compensate for this delay, I came to bring you the most recent love story from Japan with the wonderful soundtrack sung by Hikaru Utada, named First Love. The music is not recent but it was brought back to life with this Drama. As well the Love inside the Drama was connected to this music. A man and a woman retrace their memory of an unforgettable first love. They first met in the 1990’s and grew up together in the 2000’s.
Hikaru Utada – First Love
[1st Love] is a Drama about finding the very first and keeping on re meeting your loved one, what are the chances of meeting your soulmate so early? The one that you can not forget and you make the ultimate sacrifice to move to another country.
Satoh Takeru, the Rurouni Kenshin movie actor, has brought us international involvement to our little drama world. He plays the character that has to see his 1st Love and soulmate continue her life, after an accident that erased all her memories and her friends.
The word sacrifice will always be a little too strong. If you really love the person, would you even call it sacrifice? I would rather call sacrifice those domestic abuse situations, where you love the person but you are unable to let them go in spite of the pain they cause you.
But that’s not the case for this Drama. There are some challenges like “if you really love them, you have to let them go and if they come back , they are yours” , I call this the ultimate belief. In this situation, the pain is caused by the act of letting go.
This Drama main action is situated in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Yae Noguchi (Hikari Mitsushima) lost her memory of her 1st Love, the one that was always connected even faraway. Namiki Harumichi, the Yae’s 1st Love. What caused the most pain in Namiki wasn’t the decision to walk out but the fact, they had their first fight and were on the phone making up, when the crash happened, in Tokyo. The fight was about her friends and university colleagues’ behavior being too harsh or direct, which Namiki calls being rude.
For the ones that don’t know , based on my research and readings, this behavior, or complaints about it, are common due to racism and discrimination against the Ainu culture descendants. Of course, this is a very old story due to the pure race beliefs from the past, which have been changing after the second World War.
For me, racism is a double tip blade, just because a person A suffers it doesn’t mean she is allowed to do the same to others. These unique situations are fed by the press and media because they sell more and none tells them they are wrong.
Back to the topic, Hokkaido, Osaka and Okinawa, are the places where you will find more racism and discrimination against Ainu, Burakumin,… etc. However, in the Drama, there is not much evidence if the characters are descendants by any unique origins. They are portrayed as normal people of Japanese society , as they should.
You may recognize the main actress from the “Death Note” movies – Hikari Mitsushima , in my eyes a very good actress.
This drama is a non romantic one, however its still inspiring . The main character Tokunaga wants to achieve the dream of becoming a Manzai top performance.
Manzai (漫才) is a traditional style of comedy in Japanese culture comparable to double act comedy or stand-up comedy.
Japanese comedy has been around for centuries, with one of the most popular and long-standing genres being manzai. Manzai is a form of stand-up comedy that typically involves two performers – a ‘straight man’ and a ‘funny man’ – trading jokes at rapid speed. The majority of the jokes are based around mutual misunderstandings, double-talk, puns, and other verbal gags.
Manzai has its origins in the 11th century, when two courtesans would entertain audience members by telling jokes and engaging in banter. The genre gradually became more popular, and by the Edo period, manzai was being performed by professional entertainers in red-light districts.
Nowadays, manzai is still hugely popular in Japan, with many annual competitions being held to find the best performers. If you’re ever in Japan and looking for a laugh, be sure to check out a manzai show – you won’t be disappointed!
Hibana: Spark (火花) is a streaming television series adaptation of the novel Spark by Naoki Matayoshi.
The story starts with a walk by the seashore in the town Atami ( 熱海市 ), Shizuoka, in the sightseeing spot, Moon Terrace ( ムーンテラス).
In Someone that gets out of the society normal path are bond to meet crazy challenges. It’s No different in Japan and many are bond to meet failure. To find some degree of a possible happiness, they have to give up their dreams and discover a job they dont like, like salaryman do.
There is even the out of standard path Kamiya, who discovered his true colors and its going through a gender change. The physical changes do show up at the Drama. So I can say its a drama that we can see the emotional and battle of the story. while transformation in and out of the characters, without the romantics cliché.
Based on manga series “5 Ji Kara 9 Ji Made” by Miki Aihara (first published March, 2010 in monthly Japanese shojo manga magazine Cheese!).
Junko Sakuraba (Satomi Ishihara) is a woman who’s facing her 29th birthday and working as an English teacher in Japan. She’s always dreamed of living in New York, but it seems like that dream is getting further and further away. She’s diligent in her work, but her love life is non-existent. At a funeral she attends, she accidentally throws ashes onto a monk who’s chanting a sutra. She feels awful about what happens and tries to apologize. Later, her family sets her up on a blind date with Takane Hoshikaw (Tomohisa Yamashita).a. It turns out that he’s the same monk she threw ashes on earlier.
This Japanese drama had so many points that made me laugh, which made it quite funny!
This drama is a romantic comedy. Junko, the teacher , is a typical career focus woman , never once her goals involved in getting married, which is a lot like nowadays people around the world. This type of people is one of the reasons natality rates decrease. However, the biggest reason why natality rate decreases in Japan so drastically is the previous known support system that made the workers blindly obedient to the CEO of their company.
The System involved in the matchmaking interviews , marriage support and housing support, whatever was the society goal and worker dream , the company provided. This is not the case anymore!
Another thing I found contrasting in the drama is the English teaching being given by Japanese natives, of course this is a big contrast. In real life at least 90% of English teachers are foreigners with most companies preferring English natives, which means citizens from US, UK , Ireland , Canada and so on … However, with English being implemented across the world as an international language and being declared the official language in the aviation world, I find this preference and in some cases total limitation to English natives, also removes hopes and chances from all other countries’ citizens.
If you really want my opinion, it should accept more non english natives with the requirement of having a IELTS or Cambridge certificate declaring they have high C1, or a C2 level by the CEFR standard ( Common European Framework of Reference), which in the case of IELTS corresponds to the Band 7.5 and above. Wouldn’t a Foreign non native to the English speaker be able to identify and anticipate what the issues or doubts a new student may have? Should a new language learning skill be taken into more consideration than the typical person that was born with one language and grows up with the same language all his life, who may not even be interested in learning the Japanese language ?
And Yes this touches a bit of my nerve, because achieving the Ielts band 8 or above, doing a CELTA certification ( that’s the english teaching certification) and having the Basic Japanese language level is my goal for 2023. That’s why I plan to attend a 1 month Course in Japan with EF – Education First . April 2023 … Sakura season Babyyyyyy, oh yeah!
Back to the Drama, Junko and Takane married by Civil law decide to commit and help both achieve their goals and dreams in life, even if it means live in New york city for one full year.
All students in a rich school the protagonist previews how she sees the rish people in her school , since she is the only scholarship student there.
I can’t help but laugh about the images of cars driving , all don’t follow the normal transit rules and drive in the middle of the street with 2 rows . As a commoner and poor person you avoid breaking rules , as a rich person you dont care about the poor world, your life, your rules kind of life.
And then we have the red card thing, where the person that receives it suffers major targeting by the all school event teachers.Even if the card is just a declaration of war of 4 students. They are the richest and most notorious in the school that have the permission to act as kings . You can Imagine why rich adult-people act as brats and bastards, especially when they are running a business.
One in particular , Domyoji, acts like a demon king because he doesn’t have anyone to go against him or show him real feelings, instead of the obedient and money bought feelings. Whenever a red card appears, Domyoji takes fun in challenging everyone that received a red target to prove they have no real feelings for the red card victim. And of course , a rich brat there is always a wicked witch mother.
And then we have the character Shizuka, which actually means calm in japanese, it suits her the calming and soothing persona that provides everyone with the best vibes to relax.
One of her sayings in the drama and anime , “ Beautiful shoes will take you to beautiful places ” – we tend to think none would look at your shoes , however that notion is wrong . Bad shoes or shoes with holes can cause health concerns like the pressure you put on your spine, or to just avoid getting a cold from feet frozen to death. I have colleague like that has feet fingers visible in her “closed”-office-type shoes, none says anything about it, at first we thought she hadn’t any money until we learned she spends the money in multiple hair care treatments, which costs 30 new shoes.
Regardless, the Drama is inspired by the Manga version with the same name Hana yori Dango – boys over flowers, a hit 1992-2008 manga series that was authored by Yoko Kamio. “BOYS OVER FLOWERS” is a 2005 Japanese drama series that was directed by Yasuharu Ishii
Makino (Inoue Mao) is a student at the super-prestigious Eitoku Academy, a seat of learning for some of the children of Japan’s wealthiest individuals.All that changes on the day her only friend spills juice all over the pristine white shirt of Domyouji Tsukasa (Jun Matsumoto), the most aggressive and spoiled member of the so-called “Flower Four” or “F4.” This unofficial group comprises the good-looking but bratty sons of the most powerful business people in Japan. The F4 are ruthless bullies, and often pressure their victims into dropping out.After Domyouji treats her only friend that’s when she snaps and gives him a taste of his own medicine, Domyouji Tsukasa unexpectedly falls for her. All of a sudden, the pendulum swings in favour of Makino – but things get very complicated when fellow F4 member Hanazawa Rui (Oguri Shun) also takes a shine to her!
This Drama was created for dark humour perhaps, and it doesn’t have a love story. However, it is quite interesting!
It’s quite evident the multi-issue involved in this drama. A Police officer that kills a rich kid for hit-and-run his family, instead of bring his suspect and proof to the investigation of the murder. The husband who wants to live a good life and have a wife to do the house chores without complaining while being pregnant. The police woman underestimates detective Skills grieving for the loss of her cat, while feeling useless when her peers ask for something, in reality, she is treated as a salarywoman, or temporary worker, when she is none of that.
At the first look, the main Character , Totono Kunou, seems to be a person with autism but the way he reacts with the other people seems to be a low degree autism. He is a person that pays attention to all details even without others noticing. He ends up solving the issues above mentioned and many more, while providing us insight of the society surrounding them.
Even when facing a situation of bus hijacked when trying to find the guilty of a serial murder, the conversation goes around table telling the stories one by one. One of them is a Bully victim 1st person accounts that Kunou answers “why do the victims of bullying have to run?”, a reality that only exists in Japan according to him and this is the same with the Domestic violence victims. However, he is wrong on this one, the domestic violence resulted one of the main reasons for suicide, specially during the pandemic that resulted in the increase of 30%. People don’t physically run in Japan, at least not 30%. The ones that run do it by reporting to the authorities by obtaining restraining orders and going back to their hometown, but is that really considering running?
“Don’t Call it Mystery” took over Fuji TV’s this year, 2022 .This drama was based on the manga series “Mystery to Iu Nakare” by Yumi Tamura , which was first published in 2016, at manga magazine Flowers.
The Plot story: Totono Kuno is just a regular university student. He’s got curly hair that he’s really self-conscious about and he doesn’t have any close friends or a girlfriend. However, he’s got an amazing memory and superb observation skills. So when a murder case unfolds near his home and the victim is another university student who attended the same school, Totono Kuno naturally becomes the prime suspect.
During his interrogation by detectives at the police station, Totono Kuno starts putting together hidden clues about the murder as well as the personal worries of the detectives. But then a weapon is found with Totono Kuno’s fingerprints all over it.
Solving the problems one after another, even gaining trust for the ones that only seek the truth !!
There is no official title in Portuguese, but the title of the film refers exactly the problem presented in the drama series — Harassment by age. Per definition, presented in the series, age harassment is when someone, especially men, spend the day back from the new employees who have just left the college on your first job.
Jdrama : Age harassment (2015)
Plot synopsis (by VIKI ) Emiri Yoshii (Ami Takei) is a young, beautiful girl that has dreams of earning an MBA in America. When her family is struck with poverty after a failed business, she gives up her dreams for a position at a trading company. With new dreams of being a company executive, she is eager to work towards success in her new role. However, she often finds herself in unfortunate situations. Her female co-workers are intimidated by her youth and good looks, and don’t understand her desire to keep to herself. On the other hand the male employees, invite her to meetings after hours and ask her to execute meaningless tasks just to have her around due to her beauty. Outcasted by women and not taken seriously by men, she becomes fed up and is on a mission to take action!
The series even begins by making a kind of comparison between two women: the woman A the young woman fresh out of college and on her way to her first interview of employment, innocent, pure and without any notion that they can deceive her, and the woman B 40-year-old graduate who built her career in the same company for years and when the opportunity to give a promotion comes, the CEO gives the promotion to a man without any knowledge of the department’s area, unlike the woman who is trained in the area.
This comparison between the two women begins to be more evident when the woman A tries to buy strawberries at a stall at the entrance of the company, she is stopped to think about the price, because she wanted to buy the strawberries in the cheapest way possible, in which two packages are cheaper, but she only needs one packaging, here appears Woman B to buy strawberries too. Per curiosity, both women are licensed in the same field. However, I didn’t let to notice the brief metaphor in which old strawberries are cheaper and without quality.
Throughout the series, several categories of Harassment within a company are presented: age harassment; paternity harassment; moral harassment; power harassment; in between others. It could be said that it is an ABC with example cases on harassment in the work. Ending the series with the phrase that “all types of harassment is a form of bullying”. Woman A is presented throughout the series as the ideal and key to the woman empowerment within the company.
When one of the employees who are victims of age harassment decides to resign for not take it any longer, the company’s CEO assumes that the young woman left to get married, even though she doesn’t have a boyfriend or fiancé.
One of the paternity and maternity harassments, in one of the episodes one of the employees will be a parent for 3 times and ask permission to work remotely (which might be allowed these days due to the pandemic).
It is explained that in a Japanese company, they are not expected to return to the company if the paternity leave lasts for one year, and maternity leave lasts for 3 months. this wide difference between licenses clearly demonstrates a gender inequality. Being one of the most unfortunate comments in episode 7, “Japanese women were born to be unhappy”.
Personally, gives me a first time perspective of a world that still struggles between new laws and traditional work practices. And I , as always , Love the good work and performance of Emi Takei (武井咲) — The main actress from this TV show and Rurouni Kenshin, as Kaoru.
Emi Takei (武井 咲, Takei Emi ) was born December 25, 1993, in Nagoya.
She broke into the modeling industry with her debut in the November 2006 issue of Seventeen and quickly became a magazine exclusive in February 2007. In November 2010, at only 19 years old, she became the youngest recipient of the “Best Dresser Award” from The Men’s Fashion Unity. She won the “Best Smile of the Year” award in November and, in December, became the first Japanese person to be contracted by Italian luxury goods brand Gucci.
Minami-kun no Koibito (南くんの恋人) is a japanese drama from 2015 directed by Kazuya Konaka. The drama is based on Minami-kun no Koibito – Manga by Shungiku Uchida.
Chiyomi Horikiri is a school girl in love with her neighbour and childhood friend Shunichi Minami.
She is a secret writer and has a passion for dancing, however, her parents are not supportive of that idea; they prefer their daughter to follow society standards. I find this to be a little hypocritical since we understand by argument in the first episode,They might have married in a rush because of pregnancy outside of marriage to avoid scandal. I understand their need to secure their daughter’s future and stable life, but forcing her to give up on her dreams even if it means just for a small trip to Tokyo.
The trip to Tokyo has another meaning in modern society. It represents the Japanese girls’ wishes to become stars without even reading contracts. In the end, their dreams are more important than economic and legal matters. Some dark companies make sure the girls pay for their time and services while maintaining full control and rights over every song and album the record labels sell with the girls’ performance. Some girls never see the money, others to avoid going bankrupt endup being scouted for the adult industry.
Japan’s Toxic Idol Industry
It’s not a surprise the most modern example is the AKB48 “let’s make a baby together” App campaign. Note that most fans are double or triple the Girl idol ages making it a very Creepy industry that promotes a weird feeling.
The worst thing as a star on the rise is how talented are you, and how much can you progress when you have 48 girls fighting for the same goals as you. Imagine 48 girls divided by groups of 16, and those 16 girls from time to time showing all up on the same videoclip. How can the music industry really notice you? Specifically, how will they see you if you are just a shadow in the background?
Going back to the drama story…
The panic starts when Chiyomi transforms herself by accident on a very stormy night. For the people that know Japanese history, all big events can be correlated with a heavy storm. She transforms into Thumbelina , a little girl of 15 centimetres. This is a representation of a helpless little Chiyomi that feels worthless and small against the world.
Minami, learning about her disappearance, comes to find her. Only to find her in a cave where they played as children to his disbelief he finds her extra small. They now have a chance to restore what was lost. I like this part because real love and friendship will always be there when you really need to.
Roles and Actors/actresses:
Maika Yamamoto – 山本 舞香 ( Chiyomi)
Japanese actress, model and singer. Born on October 13, 1997, she also goes by the nicknames Maika and Mai Mai. She made her acting debut in the 2011 television drama “Soredemo, Ikite Yuku.” She has since appeared in many popular films and television dramas, including “Kamen Teacher” (2013), “Yoru No Sensei” (2014) and “My Little Lover – Minami Kun No Koibito” (2015).
Taishi Nakagawa – 中川大志 (Minami)
Japanese actor, host and model. Born on June 14, 1998, he began his career as a child actor but was often cast in older roles because of an early growth spurt. He made his acting debut in the 2009 television documentary drama “When I Was a Child.” He has since appeared in many popular films and television dramas, including “I’m Mita, Your Housekeeper” (2011), “Hana No Kanmuri” (2012), “Prison School” (2015) and “My Little Lover – Minami Kun No Koibito” (2015).
