Yasuko Sawaguchi's "Getsuku" drama "Absolute Zero: Emergency Information Crime Investigation" (Fuji TV, Mondays at 9pm) will begin airing on October 6th. This is the fifth installment in the popular series, and this time the setting is the "Special Information Crime Task Force" (commonly known as DICT). This will be Sawaguchi's first lead role in a Fuji TV drama series in 35 years, since "Oedo Detective Diary: Teruhime Shichihenge" (1990), and her first appearance in a Getsuku drama in her 41-year career.
The "Absolute Zero" series has aired in seasons 1 (2010) and 2 (2011) starring Aya Ueto, and seasons 3 (2018) and 4 (2020) starring Kazuki Sawamura.
The new series is set in DICT, an investigative agency that pursues perpetrators of "information crimes" that abuse advanced information technology and threaten the lives and property of citizens. They tackle a variety of information crimes, from everyday crimes that threaten people's daily lives to large-scale crimes that threaten national security, such as "special frauds" and "cyberterrorism," typified by anonymous, mobile crimes (commonly known as "tokuryu"). Sawaguchi plays Ninomiya Nami, a detective at DICT.
Yokoyama Yu from "SUPER EIGHT" will play Detective Yamauchi Toru, a former member of the MiHAN (Preventive Crime Investigation Team) who is transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigative Division and becomes a member of DICT; Kuroshima Yuina will play Shimizu Sae, a member of DICT and an investigator; Yasuda Ken will play Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Saso Shinjiro; and Itaya Yuka will play Japan's first female prime minister, Kiritani Kyoko.
In the first episode... Six months ago, in order to deal with increasingly sophisticated information crimes, Team DICT was established under the direct control of Prime Minister Kiritani (played by Itaya) and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Saso (played by Yasuda). However, they have yet to achieve any visible results, and Kiritani and Saso are busy dealing with the media.
Meanwhile, a series of robberies involving the misuse of information occur. Detective Tomoyo Tanabe (Azusa Babazono) suspects that Tokuryu is responsible for the crimes due to commonalities between the cases. Inspector Shimizu (Kuroshima) identifies the culprit, and two police sergeants, Mutsuo Minakata (Hayato Ichinose) and Kei Kakegawa (Satoshi Kanada), arrest the perpetrator.
However, the perpetrator only received instructions, and the crime was not fundamentally solved. Nami (Sawaguchi) tells the head of the department, Hayami Hiroshi (Matsukado Yohei), that she wants to see the crime scene in person, and rushes out with Yamauchi (Yokoyama)...
