Program List
Mothers 2017 – The pregnant homeless women
マザーズ2017 – 野宿の妊婦
This heart-warming drama is based on an episode that is currently taking place at an agency that helps to arrange special adoptions (“tokubetsu-yoshiengumi” in Japanese), a system in which the happiness of the children comes first.
Takako Okuda (Shigeru Muroi), the head of “Smile Baby”, a non-profit organization that helps arrange special adoptions, helped Madoka Sakamoto (Alice Hirose) who is homeless and 9 months pregnant. She has been living off of coins she picks up from underneath vending machines, eating instant noodles, and drinking water from public parks. Despite Takako looking out for her, Madoka, needing quick cash, went to Shun Nonogaki (Masato Wada), an agent who uses on-line marketing to solicit expecting mothers with the offer: “we will give you 150,000 yen per month until you give birth if you give the infant up for adoption.”
Madoka soon feels anxious because of what she feels is Nonogaki’s insincere attitude and she petitions to cancel but is threatened that she would have to repay twice the money she had received if she cancelled and is left with nowhere else to go. Takako manages to find the pregnant Madoka, who had disappeared suddenly, and tries to help her keep from having to turn over her baby to Nonogaki…
This situation makes Takako’s adopted daughter, Megumi (Yuuki Yagi) who has become a high school student, begin to think strongly about who gave birth to her and where she came from. She sees herself in Madoka’s unborn baby who is to be adopted into an unknown kind of family through Nonogaki’s agency, and she is determined to ask her adopted mother, Takako, about her biological mother. But…
Mothers2016 －The Mother's Wishes
マザーズ2016 －母たちの願い
From a mother who cannot raise to another mother who wants to foster…
Rin Tanabe is a popular television newscaster for a morning show, but behind her smiles is profound anxiety about fertility treatment. Although she eventually decided to give up on the treatment, she still could not accept the reality of “a life without a child.”
One day, through her job, Rin comes across a non-profit organization called “Smile Baby,” an agency that helps to arrange special adoption (“tokubetsu-yoshiengumi” in Japanese.)
Rin visits “Smile Baby” for a TV interview and meets Takako, the head of the organization. Learning more about the reality of these types of situations, Rin begins to feel that she wants to help those born from an unwanted pregnancy...
Mothers2015 －The 17 year-old birth mother
マザーズ2015 －17歳の実母
“I am scared of the child in my tummy…confesses Asako, a high-school sophomore who got pregnant as a result of child abuse. What can bring light to Asako’s closed heart…”
This is the second edition of Chukyo TV’s 45th anniversary Drama, Mothers.
After gathering a great deal of information and case studies regarding special adoptions, Chukyo drafted an original script giving extensive coverage to these situations after determining that the gathered material can best be portrayed through drama.
The story for “Mothers 2015 The 17 year-old birth mother” is based on a true story.
Principal character of this drama is Asako, a high-school sophomore. She became pregnant unexpectedly as a result of sexual abuse by her mother’s boyfriend. This abuse has deeply wounded her physically and emotionally in ways that will last her entire life. Betrayed, even by her beloved mother Asako blocked her memory of the abuse and shut her mind in despair. Accompanied by a class teacher, she visited the house called “Smile Baby” run by an NPO that assists pregnant women who cannot raise their babies for various reasons.
Through 3 mothers (the birth mother, the foster mother, and Takako, the head of the NPO who connects the two others through special adoption. The story raises fundamental questions, “What is life?” and “What is motherhood?”
マザーズ2014
“I have three mothers. Mother who gave me a birth, Mother who raised me up. And, Mother who connected me with the two mothers.”
This is the story about a boy who grew up with no idea at all he was an adopted child until he is 19 years old. He learns hardships his mothers had to come through while exploring his past at the house called “Smile Baby” run by an NPO that secures pregnant women who cannot raise their babies for various reasons.
This story is based on the CTV’s *awarded original documentary program that discloses truth of adoption issues in Japan. “What is a family?” -the story brings about fundamental questions, while telling you realities behind adoption. The shooting was taken place solely in Tokai region. Along with the touching story about the delicate social issue you can feel the local” smell and taste” of Chukyo Area.
*The facts-and-research-based documentary was awarded Grand Prix of Japan Broadcast Culture Awards in November, 2014.