Several weeks ago, Goro Inagaki, the quiet member of SMAP who for three months excluded himself from the group's activities as penance for a traffic violation, returned to showbiz with considerable fanfare.
One of the programs on which he appeared regularly prior to his run-in with the law was "Tokumei Research 200X" (Nippon TV, Sunday, 7:58 p.m.), on which he played agent Toru Date of the Far East Research Co. Inagaki's absence was explained as a lengthy Los Angeles assignment for his character.
Two weeks ago, Date returned from L.A. with a bad haircut to find that he had been transferred to another division. His former supervisor was a straight-arrow organization man. His new chief is a cranky hipster played by Naoto Takenaka with orange hair, ear studs and an allergy to neckties. In fact, the whole division is more laid-back and cynical than the one he worked in before.