Dorama

Dorama (ドラマ), the romanization of the English loanword drama in the Japanese language, are Japanese television or radio dramas.

Television Dramas

Japanese dramas are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan each produce a variety of dramas including romantic dramas, comedies, detective stories, horror and others.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Japanese dramas are broadcast in three-month seasons, with new dramas airing each season. The majority of dramas are aired weekly, in the evenings around 9:00pm, 10:00pm, or even 11:00pm. Dramas shown in the morning or day are generally broadcast on a daily basis, and episodes of the same drama can be aired every day for several months, such as the NHK Asadora Dorama.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Japanese television seasons are: Winter (January-March), Spring (April-June), Summer (July-September), and Autumn or Fall (October-December).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Importance of Ratings in Japanese Drama

In Japan, television is the king of all media. According to a survey completed in 2000 by Nihon Housou (NHK), Japan's public broadcast network, 95-percent of Japanese watch television every day. In the same survey, 86-percent said they consider television an indispensable medium, compared to 68-percent who said the same of newspapers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are other forms of media that can be used to push products and services, such as the Internet. However, a television executive at Nippon Television (NTV) believes that although the Internet is popular among drama fans, "We don't regard broadband as mainstream media. It will never happen. Broadband is a complementary medium."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Virtually the entire market in Japan is based on advertising. Most consumers in Japan purchase products and services based purely on the endorsement of a popular Japanese drama star or idol. It isn't that unusual for a Japanese consumer to buy a pair of denim jeans from Company X because a favorite drama star of his endorsed the jeans. As a result, the added pressure for success put on TV-based dramas are now even greater than ever. Dramas with better ratings will bring in more revenue from advertising via these types of commercials (CM).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

How do we come up with these numbers? Television ratings are calculated by several researching firms. Video Research Ltd. is one of the more reliable firms, and more TV networks, advertisers and Japanese drama fans use the numbers from this firm than any other firm. The ratings focus on the Kanto (Tokyo) area and the Kansai (Osaka) areas, which is believed to serve as good representation of what all of Japan is watching. With Monday nights being the most popular of each broadcast week, the ratings become available around Wednesday, Japan time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The rating system is very simple. Basically, all the major Japanese television networks make up the Japanese television market. So, a research firm must determine the size of the TV watching audience. The audience size is determined using two factors: the amount of content that is transmitted and the amount that is received, because some TV networks have a larger market size than others. The actual viewership count of a given episode of a drama is calculated using a variety of polling methods. Ratings are then calculated in percentages or points, based on the episode's viewership numbers divided by the market size. Finally, the numbers are published on the research firm's web site, as well as on hardcopy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With these rating percentage numbers, the experts know exactly how to use these numbers. As for the average Japanese drama fan, what do these numbers actually mean? Is 20 points any good? There is no solid science on how to interpret these rating percentages. But, for most fans, simply the drama with the highest percentage number is the winner for the week. And, the fans use these numbers to decide which dramas they should watch during the remainder of the season. Despite this simple interpretation, there are one or more factors that may come into play that explain some dramas received higher percentage points than others. It is a simple fact that evening dramas draw better ratings than dramas that air in the mornings and afternoons. But, that doesn't mean evening dramas are better. Although the transmission size is virtually the same in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, the evenings draw higher numbers because most evening viewers work during the day, and less people at home watching TV in the mornings and afternoons. There are, however, some exceptions to the rule. For example, the NHK Asadora Drama Oshin drew an average rating percentage of 52.6-percent, a number that would be extremely good for an evening drama, but even more extraordinary for a drama that airs in the mornings, six days a week.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Finally, rating percentage play a heavy role on the success of a drama artist. The numbers of an artist's previous work are used by TV producers to determine whether or not the artist is a marketing success. If the ratings drawn by the artist's previous work is good, the artist will receive offers to star in dramas that have better producing and writing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As you can see, rating percentages have an influence on every single aspect of the Japanese drama circuit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Formula for Good Ratings

In the evening dramas, the cast members are carefully selected and tend to be famous artists that audiences are very fond of. The choice of cast members frequently affects the drama's audience rating. And, pairing the right male and female artists is especially important in a renzoku ren'ai (romantic or love) story.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In contrast, cast members of morning and day dramas are not as popular as those of evening dramas, but with time the artists frequently gain popularity. More effort is put into dramas that air during the Winter Season, as viewers are at home more during the colder winter months.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Why Japanese Dramas Start at Odd Times

As you start reading the Japanese TV guides on the Internet and in hardcopy, you'll find that most dramas never start at exactly the top of the hour or half-hour. Instead, you see some episodes start at 8:58pm, while others start at 9:05pm. Awhile back before TV ratings started to matter, episodes did actually start at exactly on the top of the hour. But, because of the agressive TV ratings war, some stations decided to beat the competition by starting their shows a few minutes earlier. The theory behind this practice is that when a show ends a few minutes before the hour or half-hour, a viewer would start changing channels until they found one that wasn't showing any commercials (CM). Similarly, if an episode runs a few minutes past the hour or half-hour, viewers are more likely to watch the next program because they missed the first few minutes of an episode on a different channel.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The exception to this trend is Nihon Housou (NHK), where they continue to start their shows at exactly the top of each hour or half-hour. More likely, the reason why NHK never changed is because every other TV station is now tweaking with the start times. As a result, these odd start times no longer offer the same advantage they once did in the beginning.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Trendy Drama Formula

Most people associate today's Japanese dramas with the more modern style of screenwriting, coined the term trendy dramas. The trendy formula for Japanese dramas was invented in the late 1980's, when screenwriters decided to reach the television audience with themes that covered real-life Japan, at a time when the Japanese were experiencing a bubble economy, issues within families, among other social issues. The trendy formula was improved in the early 1990's, where the story lines changed with the times of that period - by gambling on harder issues, including teenage violence, child abuse, and modern family life. Year-by-year, the trendy drama formula is tweaked to fit the television viewers' changing taste. Still, even today, the success of Japanese dramas is a result of sticking with the trendy drama formula. Although some people consider sentai and tokusatsu type shows as dramas, they're not covered when dramas are referred to using the trendy definition.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Quality of Acting

People outside of Japan who watch Japanese dramas for the first time may notice a lower quality of acting than what they're used to. This is actually not an objective observation - even the Japanese entertainment industry admits that not all artists are made out to be quality television actors and actresses. Given time, some artists do eventually become great television actors and actresses. However, excellent acting skills is not that common - and it isn't demanded by the Japanese drama fans.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In most parts of the world, especially in the United States, the artist's acting ability is critical, and is heavily scrutinized by the television audience. In contrast, the Japanese audience focus more on the artist's overall idol status and marketibility than his actual acting skills. Since the introduction of the trendy drama formula, idols from outside of television (singers, dancers, and even gravure models and racequeens) are brought into the drama cast for the sole purpose of boosting ratings. Keep in mind that in Japan, all Japanese artists are entertainers. It is almost impossible for an artist to stick with just one skillset in the long-term. Artists may be introduced as a certain genre of artist in the beginning. But, down the stretch the more successful artists-turned-idol will end up being featured in a Japanese drama.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Television is that powerful of an entertainment medium.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Theme Music and BGMs

In the board game Trivial Pursuit, there is a trivia question that asks "Name one television show that did not feature any theme music." The answer is CBS' magazine 60 Minutes. Therefore, every other television show in existence features theme music of some kind. Why is theme music so important in television? And, why is theme music criticially important for a Japanese drama's overall success?

Related Topics:
Trivial Pursuit - CBS' - 60 Minutes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Japanese dramas did not invent theme music. But, they did turn it into a Japanese entertainment industry in itself. Theme music and background music (BGM) basically sets the overall tone of the drama series. Most dramas will start off with one to two minutes of opening theme music, while displaying the opening credits. Other dramas will have at the very least a catchy melody in the beginning, displaying the drama's name that lasts a few seconds, and then one to two minutes of ending theme music during the closing credits. BGMs are placed and used at strategic points of the episode in order to set the mood of that particular moment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is a sub-genre of Japanese drama fans that are also huge fans of the drama's original soundtrack (OST). Most television networks work with music companies to produce OSTs in compact disc or other format. Most opening and closing theme music is written special for the drama series, while other theme music is licensed from other sources that previously existed. Once the library is put together, the television network will release the OST CD, usually a few weeks after the start of the drama.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nihon Housou (NHK) is known to produce its own theme music. NHK is one of the only Japanese television networks that actually own its own orchestra. Most of the theme music you hear in their taiga and asadora dramas were written and produced in-house.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In recent years, theme songs have been licensed from sources outside of Japan. In some instances, you will hear theme songs licensed from some of the biggest names of the Western recording industry. This practice does have its disadvantages. When the Japanese drama is licensed outside of Japan, theme music licensing becomes a costly problem. For example, in the Fuji TV drama Densha Otoko, many of the drama's theme songs had to be replaced in the release that aired on the Nippon Golden Network (NGN).

Related Topics:
Fuji TV - Densha Otoko

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Differences in Focus Between Networks

Dramas broadcast on Fuji TV are the most watched, and is widely known as the inventor of the trendy drama formula. Famous scriptwriters are often used, along with casting the most popular artists at the time. It's generally thought that the 9:00pm dramas shown on Monday nights are the most watched, and are usually love stories, a very popular genre.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other Japan television networks also have their own focuses. TV Asahi, for example, focus heavily on jidaigeki and crime-situated stories. Nihon Housou (NHK) puts more effort into programming that reach an older demographic, focusing mostly on period dramas of historical significance, as well as inspiring dramas that focus on a young, strong-willed hero or heroine.

Related Topics:
TV Asahi - Jidaigeki - Nihon Housou (NHK)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~