The new cast for the NHK Asadora drama "Kaze,Kaoru ," starring Ai Mikami and Juri Kosaka , which will air in the first half of 2026, has been announced on the official NHK drama website (＠nhk_dramas), and it has been revealed that actress Yuriko Hirooka will be appearing. She will play Kiku Ooya, a neighbor in the tenement house where Naomi Ooya (Uesaka), one of the main characters, lives.
Hirooka commented, "In my previous Asadora, I played familiar aunties - an aunty relative in 'Manten', an aunt next door in ' Hanbun, Aoi', and an aunt with a flamboyant voice in 'Yell'. In ' Kaze,Kaoru' I played an aunt from a tenement house. When I went to the costume fitting, they put a white wig on me! I went a step further than an aunt, and became a grandmother!! 'Wow, this is interesting!' I'm going to trust this intuition and enjoy it until the very end!!"
"Kaze,Kaoru" is the 114th serial TV drama. Set in the Meiji era, it is a buddy drama featuring two trained nurses, Ozeki Chika and Suzuki Masa, as its two protagonists. The two graduated from the same nursing school, but struggle with how to interact with patients and doctors, and grow through clashes, eventually becoming the "strongest buddy." Mikami plays the other protagonist, Ichinose Rin.
