“24 JAPAN” to air on TV Asahi on October 9th

In the United States, “24” was a drama series that has entertained fans for many years.  But will the concept work in Japan?

“24 JAPAN” will be airing on TV Asahi and will star Karasawa Toshiaki (“20th Century Boys”, “The Last Copy”, “Yell”, “Shiroi Kyoto”), will play the role of Shido Genba, the director of Team A of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU).

Asakura Urarara (portrayed by Nakama Yukie) is the leader of the Minsei PArty and is expected to become Japan’s first female prime minister.  On the day of the election, an assassination plot on Asakura’s life has Shido Genba trying to stop the assassination attempt, but to make things worse, someone has kidnapped his daughter.

It took about five years to acquire the remake rights to “24”, TV Asahi acquired the rights for a remake after long negotiations.  Producer Kanda Emii of TV Asahi said, “I have been negotiating the rights for 4-5 years and I feel that I have finally reached this point.  During the negotiations, I was presented with strict conditions many times, and one of the conditions is that the drama must be aired in two ku-ru (a Japanese broadcasting industry jargon which means quarterly.  Typically dramas are presented throughout the year in four ku-ru – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn) and the series features 24 hours.  So, 1 hour = 1 episode, and thus there must be 24 episodes for “24 JAPAN” instead of the usual 12-episodes.

---