entertainment

Ikki Sawamura, Meisa Kuroki to star in drama about 'black companies'

11 Comments

Ikki Sawamura, 46, and Meisa Kuroki 25, will star in a new Fuji TV drama series about the so-called "black companies" in Japan.

The Japanese term ブラック企業 refers to companies that illegally underpay and overwork their employees. They have been getting a lot of media attention since last year, and the upcoming drama, "Black President,” which will air from April 8, will be the first time for a Japanese drama series to spotlight this social problem.

Sawamura plays the president of a black company, which is a rapidly developing clothing company. Sawamura's character graduated from a designer college and he overworks his employees with his profit-first principle without being aware that he is breaking labor laws.

In order to learn company management, he enters a university at the age of 45 and starts to interact with young studentsn.

Kuroki plays the role of Kyoko Akiyama, a university lecturer. As she grew up in a different environment and has completely different ideas from Sawamura's character, the two often clash.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

11 Comments
Login to comment

Can see this being real cerebral. The black company issue has been popping up a lot lately. Expect it to disappear just as quickly as the media circus moves on.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Great. More pro-union propaganda on TV. How DARE those EVIL companies make a profit! Don't they know they should make stuff and give it away for free?

The nerve of some people....

Cerebral? I don't see how a bunch of people whining that they work too hard and don't get paid enough to be cerebral...

-13 ( +1 / -14 )

The Japanese term ブラック企業 refers to companies that illegally underpay and overwork their employees.

Isn't that like almost all of them?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

gaijinfoMAR. 01, 2014 - 10:24AM JST Great. More pro-union propaganda on TV. How DARE those EVIL companies make a profit! Don't they know they should make stuff and give it away for free?

Profits are fine as long as companies obey labor laws. Are you aware of the tricks Japanese companies get up to to avoid listing workers as full time, to avoid paying overtime, to avoid their obligation to enroll workers in pensions. They're called 'black' not just because they're cheap, but because they're breaking the law.

Do you work in eikaiwa and if so are you cool with the company paying its Japanese staff bonuses twice a year but not the teachers who actually make the profits? Are you working over 30 hours a week yet listed as 'part-time' by your company to avoid paying shakai hokken? If you go around affirming the corporate 'right' to shaft workers in the name of profits then sooner or later it's going to happen to you.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

If Meisa is in the show, nothing else matters;-)

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Ok... the main character is unaware he is breaking labor laws. Hmmm.... I wonder how many actual "black company" President's are also "unaware". I mean, God forbid, a Japanese, would intentionally break labor laws. Yeah... they must not know the error of their ways.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I thought black companies were just called successful businesses in Japan.

On a positive spin, It's nice to see Kuroki get out of her cone of shame just for a shotgun wedding/pregnancy. I'd take Japanese celeb scandals any day over the western "Dead from a Drug Cocktail" scandals.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@budgie

Do you work in eikaiwa and if so are you cool with the company paying its Japanese staff bonuses twice a year but not the teachers who actually make the profits? Are you working over 30 hours a week yet listed as 'part-time' by your company to avoid paying shakai hokken? If you go around affirming the corporate 'right' to shaft workers in the name of profits then sooner or later it's going to happen to you.

Boom. Couldn't have said it better myself! Despicable that they get away with this.

On a side note, this being Japanese TV, the show will be very "conservative" in its approach (ie. will not have the balls to "go there"). Won't bother watching.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites