Abstract
NHK Morning Drama serials, also known as “Asadora,” which are set in various regions and have a long six-month broadcast period, impact the local community in various ways. Focusing on an Asadora program Okaeri Mone (Welcome Home, Monet), this paper explores how people in the featured area, Kesennuma City and Tome City of Miyagi Prefecture, perceived the program. The paper also examines and discusses the psychological effects of Asadora on the community.
Okaeri Mone was broadcast ten years after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Set in Kesennuma and Tome and covering the period between three years after the quake to the present, the program vividly portrayed the region and the local people. While Kesennuma was heavily affected by the tsunami, Tome did not suffer tsunami damage. This paper analyzes interview surveys of local residents on the depiction of the region and the earthquake/tsunami disaster.
The analysis shows that the drama served as a vehicle for locals to reaffirm the area’s attractiveness and rebuild its identity. In terms of the disaster, the drama’s depiction of the difference between those who experienced the tsunami and those who did not (parties and non-parties) resonated with many people. It is also revealed that the difference in disaster experience have created a divide or a line between the residents in Kesennuma and that people in Tome have a strong sense of non-party.
For the people in the affected area, the actual disaster experience was much harder than the drama, and watching the drama did not change their views on the disaster much. As ten years have passed since the disaster, many people have calmed down and can look back on what they went through after the disaster by watching the drama. Meanwhile, the survey also reveals that some could not watch the drama even after 10 years due to the trauma caused by the disaster.
