Yasuko Sawaguchi stars in the Getsuku drama "Absolute Zero: Emergency Investigation of Information Crimes" (Fuji TV, Mondays at 9pm). The synopsis and stills for the second episode, which will air on October 13th, have been released.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Saso Shinjiro (Ken Yasuda Ken) presents a report on the crackdown on a social media romance fraud ring to DICT Director Hayami Hiroshi (Matsukado Yohei), saying that the arrests are just the tip of the iceberg. The total loss last year was more than 127 billion yen, and information leaked from this fraud has been sent to criminal organizations overseas, making it a scale the government cannot afford to ignore. Saso approaches the heart of the criminal organization and commands Hayami, "Don't let them get away with anything."
Nami Ninomiya (played by Sawaguchi), who received information from Hayami, contacted Kei Kakegawa (played by Satoshi Kanada) and Shibata (played by Hidetoshi Hoshida), a victim of a romance scam. Shibata had sent a large sum of money to a self-proclaimed American military doctor named Emma whom he met on a dating app.
Minakata Mutsuro (Ichinose Hayate) investigates the flow of Shibata's money, while Tanabe Tomoyo (Babazono Azusa) inquires about the account information with the operator of the matching app. Nami and Kakegawa search for commonalities between similar cases.
The investigation is difficult as Shibata's money is being sent to overseas accounts, but there is one intermediary account in a Japanese name on the remittance route. Nami and Kakegawa go to meet this person, supermarket worker Saki Hashimoto (Reika Sakurai). Nami tells Saki, "Your account has been stolen and is being used for fraudulent remittances," but she says she has no idea what she's doing.
Nami, sensing something slightly strange about Saki's expression, listens to the supermarket manager and Saki's colleague, Fujii Haruka (Nahana), and discovers that Saki frequently contacts her boyfriend during her breaks at work...
The drama is the fifth in the "Absolute Zero" series. This time, the story is set in the "Special Information Crime Unit" (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 those affecting everyday life, such as "special fraud" (e.g., anonymous, mobile crimes) and "cyberterrorism," to large-scale crimes that threaten national security.
