Renzoku Terebi Shōsetsu (連続テレビ小説, "serial TV novel"), colloquially known as asadora (朝ドラ, "Morning Drama"), is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode,[1] Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white A Daughter and Me (娘と私, Musume to Watashi), starring Takeshi Kitazawa which aired in Japan Monday through Friday mornings—it was also the only of such series to be aired for 20 minutes per episode.[1] From 1975 onward, series aired in the first half of the year are produced by the NHK Tokyo Broadcasting station and series in the latter half of the year are produced by the NHK Osaka Broadcasting station; the Osaka branch's first asadora production was Whirlpools (うず潮, Uzushio) in 1964.
Due to the practice of wiping commonly in practice around the world in the 1960s and 1970s, not all episodes of all pre-1980 asadora series survive, as the 2-inch Quad videotapes were often wiped and reused; 16 of the produced asadora series in total are incomplete in the NHK archives, with several series having no surviving episodes at all. Several late 1970s series are complete in the archive as the result of off-air home video recordings donated by viewers; all series from Big Sister Ma (マー姉ちゃん, Mā-nē-chan) (1979) onward are retained in full in their original formats.
Asadora currently airs in Japan Monday through Saturday mornings on NHK General TV from 8:00 to 8:15, with a rebroadcast the same day from 12:45 to 13:00. Starting with Yell (エール, Ēru) (2020), the timeslot changed to Monday through Friday mornings, with the omnibus airings on Saturday. The asadora have become some of the most popular shows on Japanese television, with series such as Oshin, earning an overall 52.6-percent ratings for the series.[1]
Virtually all of the storylines center on the life of a female heroine who faces challenges while working to achieve her dreams. The heroine is chosen by NHK through an audition that involves interviews with several thousand applicants. The winning actress not only stars in an asadora, but also becomes a spokeswoman for NHK, and is usually involved in NHK-sponsored events—including the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Year's Eve event. Often, the asadora serves as a springboard for the actress to other opportunities within the Japanese entertainment industry.
The current series is Omusubi (2024).