The January Sunday Theatre drama " Mikami Sensei " (TBS, Sunday 9pm) starring actor Tori Matsuzaka is a hot topic. This completely original school drama will see Shimori Roba team up with Matsuzaka for the first time since the movie "The Journalist" (2019), and will be in charge of the script for a primetime drama series for the first time. Kazutaka Iida, who has been in charge of popular Sunday Theatre dramas such as "Anti-Hero" (2024) and "VIVANT" (2023), is the producer. Shimori spoke in an interview about the origin of the idea behind the theme of "Bureaucratic Sensei" and the keyword "The personal is political."
◇ Sunday Theatre is "naturally a pressure" and "there were no restrictions on the theme or plot" for the first commercial TV drama
" Mikami Sensei" is a story of a major reversal in education revival, in which Migami Takashi (Matsuzaka), a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who wants to change the Japanese education system, is seconded to a private high school, Rintoku Gakuin, where he teaches at the podium himself, guiding 18-year-old high school students living in the Reiwa era while standing up to authority.
Shimori, who is writing the script for a commercial television drama series for the first time, revealed her feelings, saying, "Sunday Theater is so large in scale, and I didn't think it was the right slot for me to suddenly start writing when it was almost my first time, so naturally I felt pressured, but I also feel very lucky."
Shimori has been active in the theater world for a long time. She began writing scripts for NHK dramas about five years ago, and says, "When the possibility of writing dramas came up, I started watching dramas in their entirety. I thought the serial drama genre was amazing, and I've been exposed to it." She reveals that she wants to know everything about the previous works of the main star Matsuzaka, as well as the works of the other adult cast members and the young actors who play student roles. "That's why I watch as many dramas as I can, and I watch the adult cast members' works, even if I can't say I watch every episode."
As it was a drama for a commercial broadcast station, "I assumed there would of course be all kinds of restrictions," he said, but added, "When I submitted the plot, not much was said. So I wrote it, wondering if it would really be okay. I think (producer) Iida-san worked behind the scenes, and although there was a huge amount of rewriting to make it better, I was able to write it with no restrictions at all on the theme or outline."
◇ Why did it break new ground in school dramas? The deciding factor in choosing the "Bureaucratic Teacher" was "intuition"!
"Mikami Sensei" has been talked about as breaking away from the "teacher vs. student" framework of previous school dramas, and breaking new ground in the "school drama" genre with a story in which teachers and students unite to face off against evil. What was the background behind the creation of this work?
Shimori said, "The idea of making it a school-based story was the idea of Producer Iida, who graduated from a university's Faculty of Education and is a qualified teacher." She continued, "It wasn't that we wanted to surpass existing school dramas, but I thought that if there were already some excellent ones, we should leave it to them. On top of that, since I was being entrusted with a school-based story by a producer who is a qualified teacher, I thought I had to make it something pretty good. I really had to do my best, so I researched a lot of things." She spoke of her determination and preparation.
"As I cover various social issues, there are many things I wish I had been taught when I was younger. I think I am someone who relatively enjoys studying, but when I was a student it wasn't something I naturally liked. Discovering the wonderfulness and fun of learning while your mind is still flexible will definitely enrich your life. For that reason too, I think education is extremely important," he said, revealing that he had the foundation for it within himself.
As for the fact that the story is set in a high school and politics are involved, he said, "There is actually a system in place where young bureaucrats from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology are sent to public schools as part of a bureaucratic dispatch program. At the very beginning of (the drama), around 2020, I presented the idea, 'What about a teacher who is dispatched as a bureaucrat?' and they thought that was a good idea, so I remember writing a plot in which a bureaucrat goes to a public high school."
"I had a hunch that it would be interesting to bring in another factor, another hierarchy, like the Ministry of Education," he said, and the deciding factor was "it was like a hunch. I thought that by having both the micro perspective of the classroom and the macro perspective of politics and government ministries, I could portray education in three dimensions. I thought it might lead to something that had a broad scope. I feel like I had that feeling from the very beginning that 'this is it!'" He felt that the challenge was worth it.
Regarding bureaucrats, he said, "I get the impression that they are trying extremely hard. However, things often don't go well within the system, and cultural and educational administration is in a weak position, so it must be extremely difficult."
"When I was writing the screenplay for the film 'The Journalist,' I interviewed bureaucrats and, of course, listened to what they had to say, but I really felt like I wasn't able to hear everything, so after that I started to study on my own. I think that my desire to know a little more about bureaucrats, regardless of ' Mikami Sensei,' was useful this time. I think I was able to write it based on reality."
◇"The personal is political" is a phrase that is necessary in today's society
The key phrase in the drama is "The personal is political."
"It's said that the word originally came out of feminism and the student movement. I heard it from someone I interviewed when I was writing a work about LGBTQ. Until then, I had thought that politics and the individual were somehow separate, but I realized that if you want to solve things like 'difficulty in living', then you have to change the system and the structure, which is very easy to understand and obvious. For me it's a pretty everyday word, so I didn't use it with any great enthusiasm this time either; I just used it casually and the directors were impressed and got on board, and it became a central part of it."
"I am extremely grateful and think it is important that so many people have become aware of this phrase because of the drama," she said. "When I saw how passionately people involved in the drama and those who watch it felt, I got the impression that it was a perspective and phrase that is truly needed in society right now. It was a good opportunity, as it was a phrase I really wanted everyone to know, and when I saw it connecting the feelings of both students and adults on set, it made me think that we should keep this phrase as a central point, and I used some really good phrases here, and I am grateful to the person who taught them to me."
The drama will enter the second half from episode 6 (broadcast on February 23rd). Shimori hinted at what to look forward to in the second half, saying, "I think it's going to be a surprisingly moving drama." The script was already written up to the final episode last year, and Shimori, who knows how things will unfold, said, "Just thinking about the kind of life this girl will lead from now on makes me tear up even after just one or two episodes."
"The first half lays the groundwork for a class discussion based on the idea of 'let's just talk,' and raises the issue and creates the outline of the story, but the second half becomes a drama that cannot be overcome unless everyone, including the adult cast, changes. So I think it will be a drama that conveys the wonderfulness of that change, that humans are capable of change, and that we can renew our values, even if only little by little, and I think we are all working hard to think about it and making it that way," he said with emphasis.
