, colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode,

Japanese television Television in Japan was introduced in 1939. However, experiments date back to the 1920s, with Kenjiro Takayanagi's pioneering experiments in electronic television. Television broadcasting was halted by World War II, after which regular televisio ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Progra ...

series broadcast in the mornings by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese public broadcaster

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Takeshi Kitazawa which aired in Japan Monday through Friday mornings—it was also the only of such series to be aired for 20 minutes per episode. From 1975 onward, series aired in the first half of the year are produced by the NHK Tokyo Broadcasting station and series in the latter half of the year are produced by the NHK

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Broadcasting station; the Osaka branch's first ''asadora'' production was in 1964. Due to the practice of

wiping Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant prop ...

commonly in practice around the world in the 1960s and 1970s, not all episodes of all pre-1980 ''asadora'' series survive, as the 2-inch Quad videotapes were often wiped and reused; 16 of the produced ''asadora'' series in total are incomplete in the NHK archives, with several series having no surviving episodes at all. Several late 1970s series are complete in the archive as the result of off-air home video recordings donated by viewers; all series from (1979) onward are retained in full in their original formats. ''Asadora'' currently airs in Japan Monday through Saturday mornings on

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its ...

from 8:00 to 8:15, with a rebroadcast the same day from 12:45 to 13:00. Starting with (2020), the timeslot changed to Monday through Friday mornings, with the omnibus airings on Saturday. The ''asadora'' have become some of the most popular shows on Japanese television, with series such as ''

Oshin is a Japanese serialized morning television drama (''asadora''), which originally aired on NHK from 4 April 1983 to 31 March 1984; it is the 31st ''asadora'' overall to be produced. The 297 15-minute episodes follow the life of during the Mei ...

'', earning an overall 52.6-percent ratings for the series. Virtually all of the storylines center on the life of a female heroine who faces challenges while working to achieve her dreams. The heroine is chosen by NHK through an audition that involves interviews with several thousand applicants. The winning actress not only stars in an ''asadora'', but also becomes a spokeswoman for NHK, and is usually involved in NHK-sponsored events—including the annual

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

New Year's Eve event. Often, the asadora serves as a springboard for the actress to other opportunities within the Japanese entertainment industry. The current series is ''

Maiagare! is a Japanese television drama series and the 107th Asadora series, following '' Chimudondon''. It premiered on October 3, 2022. Haruka Fukuhara was cast in the lead role of Mai Iwakura after an audition of 2545 women. Plot Cast Iwaku ...

'' (2022).

List of series

References

External links

Official webpage
{{DISPLAYTITLE: ''Asadora'' 1961 Japanese television series debuts Japanese entertainment terms NHK original programming

List of series

See also

References

External links