Japanese dramas, Q4 2025: the quarter in review

It aired 10 episodes in TBS's Sunday Theater slot from October 12 to December 14. In this horse-racing drama based on Kazumasa Hayami's novel (Shinchosha), Kozo Sanno (Koichi Sato), the domineering head of a company who owns racehorses, and his secretary Eiji Kurisu (Satoshi Tsumabuki) pursue a dream race over 20 years. Kohei Kiyasu wrote the script and Ayuko Tsukahara was among the directors, with Ren Meguro, Kotaro Koizumi, Hitomi Kuroki and Wakana Matsumoto co-starring.

Its 11.7% premiere was the series high; the final episode drew 11.4%, and its 10.6% average was the highest among the autumn season's commercial-network serials. At the TVstation Drama Awards 2025, it won Best Drama, Best Actor (Satoshi Tsumabuki), Best Supporting Actor (Ren Meguro) and Best Supporting Actress (Wakana Matsumoto).

All six episodes were released on Netflix on November 13. In the 11th year of the Meiji era, 292 swordsmen drawn by an enormous cash prize enter "Kodoku," a death game in which they must travel from Kyoto to Tokyo along the Tokaido road while seizing one another's wooden tags. Based on Shogo Imamura's novel (Kodansha), it was directed by Michihito Fujii and others. Junichi Okada plays the lead, Shujiro Saga, and also serves as producer and action planner, with Yumia Fujisaki, Kaya Kiyohara, Masahiro Higashide, Shota Sometani, Ryusei Yokohama and Kazunari Ninomiya in the cast. Ahead of the release, episodes 1 and 2 were screened on September 18 in the On Screen section of the 30th Busan International Film Festival.

In its first week of release it drew 6.2 million views, ranking No. 2 on the global chart for non-English TV, and it took No. 1 in its second week with 7.2 million. Its weekly views over the four weeks it spent in the global Top 10 added up to 18.3 million. It spent eight weeks in Netflix's Top 10 for TV in Japan, from the week of November 16, 2025, to the week of January 4, 2026, four of them at No. 1. It became the first Japanese production nominated for Best Foreign Language Series at the Critics' Choice Awards, and a second season was announced on December 19.

It aired nine episodes in TV Asahi's Tuesday 9 p.m. slot from October 21 to December 16. In this sci-fi romance, Bunta (Yo Oizumi), an office worker who has hit a dead end in life, gains very limited psychic powers and sets out to save the world under one rule: "You must not love anyone." It is an original script by Akiko Nogi, with Aoi Miyazaki, Dean Fujioka, Masaki Okada and Takumi Kitamura co-starring.

Its 8.5% premiere was the series high; the final episode drew 6.1% and it averaged 6.1%. It spent nine weeks in Netflix's Top 10 for TV in Japan, from the week of October 26 to the week of December 21, three of them at No. 1.

This TBS Tuesday drama aired 10 episodes from October 7 to December 9. Katsuo Ebihara (Ryoma Takeuchi), who believed that "cooking is a woman's job," starts cooking for himself after his girlfriend Ayumi Yamagishi (Kaho) turns down his marriage proposal, and gradually changes. It is based on Natsuko Taniguchi's manga, with Ayami Nakajo and Yuzu Aoki co-starring.

After 6.3% for the premiere and 4.5% for episode 4, it hit its series high of 8.7% with the final episode, averaging 7.1%. It won Best Drama at the 126th Television Drama Academy Awards and the Drama Grand Prize at the TVer Awards 2025.

This Nippon TV Saturday drama aired 10 episodes from October 11 to December 20, and two original-story episodes were released on Hulu. In this mystery, former classmates whose faces were blacked out in a graduation album found in a time capsule buried 22 years earlier start dying one by one; it is a "kosatsu" (speculation) drama in which viewers try to deduce the culprit and decode the foreshadowing. Shotaro Mamiya and Yuko Araki share the lead, and it is an original script by Gaku Kawasaki.

It opened at 6.2% and hit its series high of 7.1% with the final episode, averaging 5.8%. It won an Award for Excellence in the drama category at the TVer Awards 2025.

This ABEMA original drama released six episodes on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. from November 19 to December 24, and it was also released worldwide at the same time on Netflix. In this suspense drama, Saki Ioka (Ko Shibasaki), head of a talent agency that broke away from a major agency, takes on weekly magazine reporter Kanade Hirata (Haruna Kawaguchi) to stop a story about an affair involving one of her actors, digging into the dark side of show business. Hiro Kanai directed, with Yusuke Santamaria co-starring.

It spent seven weeks in Netflix's Top 10 for TV in Japan, from the week of November 23 to the week of January 4, 2026, peaking at No. 2.

It aired 11 episodes in Fuji TV's Wednesday 10 p.m. slot from October 1 to December 17. Set in 1984, this ensemble drama about young people who devote their lives to theater is an original script that Koki Mitani wrote as an homage to Shakespeare. Masaki Suda plays the lead, Mitsunari Kube, with Fumi Nikaido, Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe co-starring.

Its 5.4% premiere was the series high; after falling as low as 2.8% with episode 9, it ended with 2.9% for the final episode and a 3.7% average. It spent one week in Netflix's Top 10 for TV in Japan, at No. 8.