On Tuesday, NHK will broadcast a dramatization of the script by Shin Adachi that won the 38th annual TV Writers Association of Japan Award. The drama, titled "Sachi and Mayu" (NHK-G, 10 p.m.), stars Mugi Kadowaki as Sachi, a young woman who was abandoned by her mother when she was 5 years old and left in an orphanage.
Since turning 20, Sachi has been on her own and working part-time at a supermarket. One day, a regular customer named Mayu (Alice Hirose), shows up at her door, telling Sachi that she has "run away from home." Sachi reluctantly lets her stay at her place. Not long afterwards, Sachi's uncle calls her and tells her he knows where her mother is living now. The news upsets Sachi, especially since Mayu has started bringing a man into their apartment. It's the kind of behavior that got her mother pregnant in the first place.
Having survived the "blackface" faux pas last week, "Music Fair" (Fuji TV, March 21, 6 p.m.) presents a few pop music acts slightly out of its middle-of-the-road comfort zone. The headliner is quirky J-pop idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, but it's the other two singers who may make more of an impression.