Actress Kazue Fukiishi looked perplexed when I asked if she could see herself ever marrying a foreigner.
"It would take a lot of love, a lot of love, a huge amount of love," she said, finding further conviction with every repetition of the "L" word. "I haven't had the chance to meet that many foreigners."
Perhaps not. But the 26-year-old has had plenty of chances to think about the subject of international marriage recently. In the five-part NHK drama, "Kaze ni Maiagaru Biniru Shito" ("Plastic Sheets Blowing in the Wind") which kicks off Saturday evening at 9 p.m., she stars as the headstrong Rika Kudo who marries her American boss at the Tokyo office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after a short but fiery romance.