Japanese love watching historical dramas, and one of the most popular times portrayed is the final years of the Edo Period (1603-1868), when the nation went through dramatic change politically, diplomatically and socially with the fall of the shogunate.
In many cases, such TV shows, including NHK's popular period drama taiga, use prominent historical figures as the main characters. But for a drama set to air on New Year's Day, NHK will instead focus on British diplomat Ernest Mason Satow and the articles he contributed to The Japan Times, a newspaper established in 1865 in Yokohama, on the peaceful handover of power from the Tokugawa shogunate to Emperor Meiji.
Historically speaking, two key figures — Katsu Kaishu, the shogunate's army minister, and Saigo Takamori, head of the Imperial forces — negotiated the conditions of the shogunate's surrender, leading to the bloodless fall of Edo Castle and Emperor Meiji's restoration to power.