Umechan Sensei
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is a
Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thriller ...
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 , 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 ...
Asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...
.


Synopsis

Umeko is the third child of Kenzō Shimomura, a stern and strict doctor at a university hospital, who lives in the
Kamata Kamata can refer to: Places *Kamata, Tokyo, a neighborhood in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan **Kamata High School, a school located in the Kamata neighborhood, Ōta, Tokyo, Japan * Kamata Kingdom, a 13th-century kingdom in Assam, India * Kamata, New Zealand ...
area of Tokyo. Her older siblings are far more talented than her: Takeo is studying to be a doctor and Matsuko, a well-known beauty, is engaged to one of Kenzō's students. At school, Umeko seems to fumble any task given to her, a problem that is made worse by the fact that this is 1945 and the war is in progress. When the war ends and she helps Kenzō save an orphaned boy who got sick, Umeko decides to become a doctor. Almost no one believes she can succeed, but when Takeo suddenly decides to quit his studies and go into business with Yōzō, Kenzo's brother, and when Matsuko finds out her fiance had been killed at the front, Umeko becomes the last chance for a family member to follow in Kenzō's footsteps. With the help of Nobuo, her next-door neighbor whose father runs a small screw manufacturing shop, she studies furiously and just manages to enter a women's medical school. There she suffers from her lack of talent, but her bright personality and ability to help others make her a respected member of the community. At school she meets Toshio Matsuoka, a talented medical student who admires her father but who is so devoted to research he does not know the first thing about dating women. Upon graduating, she becomes an intern at Kenzō's hospital and starts dating Toshio. While working there she encounters Dr. Sakata, who operates a run-down clinic in the same building as Takeo's business office. She begins to respect his selfless dedication to helping those in the neighborhood and decides to leave the hospital to start her own clinic in Kamata, especially after Sakata dies in an accident. Her ideas about medical practice cause Toshio to accept an offer to do research in America and break up with Umeko. Meanwhile, Matsuko has married Masakazu Katō, a somewhat shy but hardworking salesman who knew her fiance. Takeo has become friendly with Shizuko, Sakata's former nurse. Just when both Umeko's and Nobuo's families begin trying to find arranged marriages for them, the two decide that the only people they really love are each other and decide to get married. After Umeko and Nobuo marry, it takes them a while to figure out how to balance work and family obligations, especially after Umeko gives birth to their first son. When Nobuo's factory takes in Mitsuo, a young man from northern Japan, as a live-in worker, the young couple have to move back to Umeko's house for lack of space. Takeo's business continues to grow, but when a risky trade fails, it goes bankrupt. Takeo declares he is leaving Shizuko to start out again on his own. After seeing the support he gets, he learns the error of his ways and decides to marry Shizuko and start again from scratch. Yōzō also finally settles down and starts a toy store nearby. Umeko continues to help people beyond just her patients but faces a crisis when a large hospital is built nearby. Hiroshi, the orphaned boy she helped save, reappears as a pharmaceutical salesman and tries to convince her to close her clinic and join the hospital. Feeling her kind of personal care is better, Umeko refuses and experiences a severe drop in patients at first, but they eventually return wanting her special care. Kenzō retires from the university hospital, only to take up another position in
Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...
, and Toshio returns from America, still more concerned with research than women. As the era enters the 1960s, Umeko has another child and Nobuo, who has now taken over the factory, gets a prestigious contract to provide parts for the new
shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...
. The story ends with Kenzō, to everyone's surprise, appearing on ''
NHK Nodo Jiman is a long-running TV program broadcast on NHK TV and NHK radio in Japan. History ''Nodo Jiman'' ("Proud of my voice") features amateur singers who live in the locality where the competition is held. The first competition was held on the radio ...
'' to sing "
Ue o muite arukō , alternatively titled "Sukiyaki", is a song by Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto, first released in Japan in 1961. The song topped the charts in a number of countries, including the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1963. The song grew to become one o ...
".


Cast

*
Maki Horikita is a Japanese former actress. During her career from 2003 until 2017, she starred in numerous Japanese television dramas, television and magazine advertisements, and movies, including roles in ''Nobuta wo Produce'', '' Hanazakari no Kimitachi ...
as Umeko Shimomura *
Katsumi Takahashi is a common Japanese given name used by either sex. Possible writings Katsumi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: ;as a given name *克己, "overcome, self/oneself" *克巳, "overcome, sixth earthly branch" *克美, "ov ...
as Kenzō Shimomura, her father *
Kaho Minami is a Japanese actress of Korean descent active in film, television and commercials. Life and career Kaho Minami was born on January 20, 1964, in Amagasaki in Hyogo, Japan, and is of third-generation Korean descent. She graduated from Toho Ga ...
as Yoshiko Shimomura, her mother * Mimura as Matsuko Shimomura, her sister *
Keisuke Koide is a Japanese actor who starred in Kwak Jae-yong's film ''Cyborg She'' and in ''Koizora''. Career In 2017, Koide admitted to drinking alcohol and having sex with a 17-year-old girl after allegations were published in ''Friday''. He was suspend ...
as Takeo Shimomura, her brother *
Mitsuko Baisho , is a Japanese actress, whose most internationally known work has been for director Shohei Imamura, from 1979 up to the director's final film in 2010. Baisho has also appeared in films of Akira Kurosawa. She won awards for best actress at the 10 ...
as Masae Shimomuta, her grandmother *
Shingo Tsurumi is a Japanese actor. Career Shingo Tsurumi has appeared in the films such as Katsuhito Ishii's ''Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl'', Hideo Nakata's '' L: Change the World'', and Tak Sakaguchi's ''Yakuza Weapon''. Filmography Films * ''Tonda C ...
as Yōzō Tachibana, Kenzō's brother *
Tsurutarō Kataoka is a Japanese television personality, actor, artist, and former professional boxer. For his role in the 1988 film ''The Discarnates'', he won the award for best supporting actor at the 31st Blue Ribbon Awards, at the 13th Hochi Film Award, and at ...
as Kōkichi Yasuoka, the Shimomura's neighbor * Tōri Matsuzaka as Nobuo Yasuoka, Kōkichi's son, Umeko's childhood friend and eventually, her husband * Mitsuomi Takahashi as Toshio Matsuoka, Umeko's onetime boyfriend *
Masanori Sera Masanori Sera ( ja, 世良公則) is a Japanese singer and actor from Fukuyama Hiroshima. He graduated from Osaka University of Arts. As a singer Sera's rock band, Sera Masanori&TWIST appeared in the Kōhaku Uta Gassen twice (1978 and 1979). He ...
as Dr. Sakata *
Fumino Kimura is a Japanese actress. Filmography Film * ''Kaze no Dadu'' (2006), Ayumi Asano * ''Adan'' (2006), Adan * ''Paradise Kiss'' (2011) * ''Run60'' (2011), Maki * '' Sukiyaki'' (2011), Shiori Mizushima * ''Ramo Trip'' (2012), Mari Ijichi * ''Chips'' ...
as Shizuko Nojima, his nurse * Ken Ōsawa as Masakazu Katō, Matsuko's husband


Production

The series theme song, "Sakasama no sora", was provided by
SMAP SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-pi ...
. It reached the number one slot on the
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...
chart.


Reception

''Umechan Sensei'' finished with an average rating of 20.7% in the Kantō area, the first time an Asadora had averaged over 20% since ''Kokoro'' in 2003.


International broadcast

* The broadcast rights for the drama were sold to Sri Lanka with the intention of dubbing it into
Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...
. *
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
It was aired every Saturday to Sunday on
Thai PBS The Thai Public Broadcasting Service ( th, องค์การกระจายเสียงและแพร่ภาพสาธารณะแห่งประเทศไทย; ), or TPBS ( th, ส.ส.ท.), is a public broadcasti ...
under the title "Dr.Ume คุณหมอหน้าใสหัวใจนักสู้"


References


External links

* * {{Asadora 2012 Japanese television series debuts 2012 Japanese television series endings Television series set in the 1940s Television shows set in Tokyo Asadora Fiction set in 1945 Japanese medical television series