Tadanobu Asano is the guest and subject of this week's installment of "Family History" (NHK-G, Wed., 10 p.m.), which probes a famous person's background in depth.
The popular 37-year-old actor talks mainly about his maternal grandfather, a Navajo Indian who came to Japan just after the war, with the American occupation. He married Asano's grandmother, a geisha and champion ballroom dancer, but the union only lasted long enough to produce a daughter. Then he returned to the U.S.
Asano never met him and, in fact, no one in his family has ever been able to explain why he left Japan. Asano wonders if he would have been a different sort of person if he had grown up knowing his grandfather and understanding his background.