Dorama (ドラマ), the romanization of the English loanword drama in the Japanese language, are Japanese television or radio dramas.

Television dramas

Japanese dramas are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Each of the major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of dramas including romantic dramas, comedies, detective stories, horror and others.

Japanese dramas are broadcast in a three-month cycle, with a new dramas airing each cycle. The majority of dramas are aired weekly in the evenings around 9 or 10pm. Dramas shown in the morning or day are generally broadcast on a daily basis and episodes of the same drama can be aired every day for several months.

The cast members of dramas shown in the evening are carefully selected and tend to be famous actors and actresses that audiences are very fond of. The choice of cast frequently affects the audience rating of a drama and is particularly important in a romantic story. Casts of morning and day dramas are not as popular as those of evening dramas, but frequently gain popularity over time. More effort is put into dramas that air during the September to December season, as viewers are at home more during the colder winter months.

Dramas broadcast on Fuji TV are the most watched. Famous scriptwriters are often used and the most popular actors of the season are cast. It's generally thought that the 9pm dramas shown on Mondays are the most watched and are usually love stories, a very popular genre. In contrast, dramas from Nihon Housou (NHK) are not as well liked, as Nihon Housou puts more effort into its variety programs rather than dramas.

List of Japanese TV dramas

• Aim for the Ace! — sport-related
• Beautiful Life — love- and disability-related
• Long Vacation
• Good Luck!! — love drama
• Oooku
• The Long Love Letter

Audio dramas

It is not uncommon for popular TV dramas, anime series, or video games to have sequels or small side stories released in the form of audio CDs.

See also

• List of dorama
• List of anime audio dramas
• ドラマ (Japanese version of this article)

External Links

• JDorama.com - Exhaustive database of Japanese dramas, actor profiles and seasonal schedules.
• WikiDrama - Wikipedia-like database of dorama.