CHANGE

Title: CHANGE
Aired: 2008-May-12 to 2008-Jul-14
Genre: Human drama, Comedy
Episodes: 10

• Kimura Takuya as Asakura Keita
• Fukatsu Eri as Miyama Rika

DramaWiki's synopsis: With the deaths of ruling party's Fukuoka Member of Parliament and his eldest son, his heir apparent, in an plane accident, a by-election had to be held right away and, Kanbayashi Masaichi, the House secretary of the ruling party,conceived the idea of fielding the second son, Asakura Keita, and sent his secretary Miyama Rika to complete the task.

Keita was an elementary school teacher in Nagano and his hobby was star gazing.He had no interest in politics. At Rika's persuasion and the pressure of his family, he reluctantly agreed to run for office but with no intention of winning. However, with the help of Nirasawa Katsutoshi, an election strategist, he went on to win by a narrow margin of just 164 votes.

When the Prime Minister was forced to resign over allegation of sexual harrassment, Kanbayashi concocted the idea of nominating the inept Keita to run for the party's leadership and thereby becoming the next Prime Minister as he thought it would be easy to manipulate him and work the situation to his own advantage so he would become the next PM when Keita failed. However, the sincerity and hard work of Keita soon won over every sceptic and as Kanbayashi found out, he was not a puppet on his strings. Kanbayashi had to come up with another scheme to destroy Keita. How far would he go to realize his ambition? Could he succeed?

Thoughts: Takuya Kimura is as always, a joy to watch. One of the few reasons why I would watch something as dry as politics. But to give the main character (Asakura Keita) credit, he is not your typical politician and thus also adds to the appeal of a political drama. Asakura is funny, honest and has a way with words and hearts. Don't be turned off by the political part of the drama! This drama shows politics through the eyes of a normal citizen who somehow landed up as a politician and is truly enjoyable