Osamu Hayashi is the most famous juku (cram school) teacher in Japan thanks to his frequent TV appearances and trademark phrase "Ima desho" ("Why not now?"). His main claim to fame as a teacher, however, is his ability to retain huge amounts of information.
This ability will be studied on "Hayashi Osamu no ima desho koza" ("Osamu Hayashi's Why Not Now Course"; TV Asahi, Tues., 7 p.m.). Hayashi will soon turn 50 and says he's noticed his memory has been deteriorating, so he has come up with a system to help him remember facts and figures more readily, which he will share on the two-hour special with noted brain scientist Kenichiro Mogi and Dr. Takuji Shirosawa, an authority on Alzheimer's.
The Polish-French painter Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, more familiarly known as Balthus, would not like NHK's special program "Balthus to kanojotachi no kankei" ("The Relationship Between Balthus and His Women"; BS Premium, May 17, 9 p.m.) because he rejected anything having to do with biography. But since he died in 2001 that isn't a problem.