Japanese TV drama tops in viewership rating for 15 years

Few soap operas exceed double digits in viewership even in the U.S., the hub of seasonal drama series. As a series continues season after season, similar stories are also repeated, which brings down its viewership.

In this light, the Japanese hit drama "Partner" is considered unique and unrivaled among the dramas in Korea, the U.S. and Japan. In this television cop drama, two detectives work together to solve cases, and every episode carries different stories. Through this year, a total of 13 seasons have been aired, and when including the special dramas that aired before the official start of the seasons, it has continued airing for the 15th year.

"Partner" is unrivaled actually because it has never seen its viewership decline over the years. The viewership rating, which initially stood at the lower 10 percent-range, rather increased gradually, and has recently reached the upper 10 percent level and even surpassed the 20 percent mark. It is quite high rating, considering that overall viewership rating of Japanese dramas has declined noticeably in the past years.

What is the reason behind its long running? For one, the show has created attractive characters by referring to classical literature. Ukyo Sukisita (Utaka Mizutani), the main character, is similar to Sherlock Holmes in many aspects. An elite cop trained at University of Tokyo, he is armed with robust reasoning skills and outstanding capacity in examining things, but is close to zero in terms of sociability. Naturally, he does not know how to read superiors’ intentions. He is working at the special task section under the metropolitan police agency, a team that has little presence in the police community. Like Holmes, he has various hobbies, as he loves black tea, enjoys flowers and plants, and is very skilled in playing the piano. However, unlike Holmes who only focuses on cases, he never hesitates to give sincere advice, and sometimes wildly unleashes anger at and preaches criminals who go astray. This character was created by combining a Western style elite figure who is focused on reasoning and logics with a patriotic Asian elite man to effectively "localize" the character.

While maximizing fun from mystery-solving process, the drama has also incorporated episodes reflecting the passage of time, and thereby overcome the long period of 15 years, which is another factor of its success. As the seasons of the drama have continued to change, crimes due to conflict between generations and new crimes using the Internet have increased in number, and the situations in cases and investigation methods have also changed, which is fun to watch. Episodes often entail scandals in which the story begins from a minor crime but results in disgraceful step-down of a high-level civil servant, and stories in which policemen try to cover up cases due to involvement of their family members. This is possible because different dramatists and producers create every different episode, rather than one or two playwright or producer dominates production of episodes.

Finally, the series has left open the possibility to renovate dramas anytime. The series has gotten reenergized anew through switch of the partner detective while its overall format and mood has been kept intact. Three actors have served as Ukyo’s partners, including Kaoru Kameyama (Yasuhumi Derawaki) who has charms completely different from him, Takeru Kanbe (Misuhiro Oikawa) who looks like him but different, and Tooru Kai (Hiroki Narimiya), who looked as if they are the father and son. Season 14, which will kick off in October, will have a new partner on board. Until when the legendary drama series, whose every single new episode sets a new record, will continue running?

iamsam@donga.com