The year is 1934. Demand for the automobile is at last beginning to heat up some 10 plus years after the devastation of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 had utterly destroyed shipping and distribution networks. Now, the likes of U.S auto making giants, Ford and General Motors, were looking to carve up the Japanese market for themselves with their foreign-made automobiles. Wataru Yamazaki is sales manager for “Hinode Motors”, a GM dealership in Aichi Prefecture. Resistant to the misguided American sales techniques being forced upon him, he constantly tries to offer suggestions, but who’s going to listen to a salesman at one little dealership? One his way home from Osaka one day, Yamazaki sees a stalled Chevrolet atop the Suzuka mountain pass being fixed by a mechanic in a suit: Saichiro Aichi. It marks the beginning of a long and rich relationship between two men who would go on to launch the first Aichi Motor Automobile Dealership.

Prior to the start of World War II, Saichiro Aichi witnessed firsthand the technological prowess and industrial strength developing in the automotive industry of the US and Europe. Under Saichiro’s strong visionary leadership and the efforts of his team, a do-mestic passenger car is finally built just as the march of war is heard approaching. Saichiro’s group bides its time through a devastating war by building military trucks and machinery only to confront a dire depression upon war’s end, due to a financial re-trenchment policy by the Bank of Japan. Short on capital and troubled by labor strife, as well as personal illness, Saichiro and his men refuse to give up. Here is an inspiring tale about visionary men who through blood, sweat and tears and the spirit of “monozukuri” battled back from the brink of bankruptcy to build a Japanese auto company that would be the pride of the world.

Do you have a teacher you will never forget?
An ordinary looking school and a typical classroom. So many students have passed through it over the years; as have many battle-scarred teachers. A message on the blackboard embodies three dramatic periods in Japan’s postmodern history. There was the time just after World War II, the economic miracle that followed, and the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami. Viewed from three fascinating and iconoclastic teachers living through these three revolutionary milestones moments, here is a story that drives at the heart of education. What did these children learn? What were the adults able to impart to them? What does it mean to be Japanese? And what are the hopes and dreams of people of all ages?

February. The story begins with a man and a woman riding the Twilight Express. Keisuke and Chie are on a last trip together before an agreed-upon breakup. Though Chie had a family, she had long admired Keisuke in secret until the day when she could no longer contain it. But Keisuke, too, loved her and looked over her with quiet strength. Here on the Twilight Express, however, time passes slowly. The two melt into each other’s company as the beautiful snow-blown winter landscape outside rolls gently past the window. There is the elegant Salon de Nord with its wide observation windows, the dining car “Diner Pleiades,” and the special suite room where true feelings can collide without reserve. Until now, Keisuke and Chie have been unable to break the hold they’ve had on each other. But now they have some time, and a lot will need to be said and resolved between their departure in Osaka until their early morning arrival in the northern city of Sapporo.

An urgent patient is carried in for Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, an ER doctor. This patient is suffering from multiple organ failure, or systematic infection, with a high fever, cramps, and the vomiting of blood. . . It is an infection that humans have never encountered. Is it a new type of influenza? Or even some other new virus? To the hospital turned into a battlefield, where Matsuoka and other staff are engaged in hectic work, a medical officer named Eiko Kobayashi is sent over from WHO. If this virus causes a nationwide pandemic, the transportation networks and the urban functions across the country will be stalled within 3 months and the number of infected persons will reach tens of millions in only half a year. A horrendous situation that may be far worse than any war damage is anticipated. Will humans be able to stop the unprecedented infection panic?!

It is 1956 , and Japan has officially declared the “post-war” period over. In the decade or so that will follow, the country will grow to be the second largest economy in the world. But what was the driving force behind this economic miracle? This drama depicts the intense drama and battles played out among Japan’s leading bureaucrats in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, focusing on Shingo Kazakoshi, the man dubbed “Mr. MITI” who selflessly and utterly devoted himself to his country’s industrial development.

As a former manager of a top hotel, Seiji has been entrusted with the reopening of a hotel in the high plains that has been boarded up and closed for years. With a budget of 20 million yen, he begins to hire interesting characters to work there and rebuild the hotel. However, his attempts to get a top chef to draw customers fail. The staff members begin to worry about the hotel’s future and try to leave, but at precisely that moment, an elderly man who used to be a chef at a top hotel pays a visit. Will this mean success for Seiji or just add to his troubles?