Kasumi Arimura, who became well-known in 2013 when she played a supporting role in the NHK morning serial drama “Ama-chan,” has just returned to the same time slot this month – as the heroine.
She’s now starring in the drama “Hiyokko” as a cheerful young woman in the mid-1960s experiencing the enthusiasm about the Tokyo Olympics.
The show starts at 8 a.m. daily except Sundays on NHK-G, with each episode running for 15 minutes.
It was a surprise for Arimura to be chosen for the lead role in a drama airing in the high-profile time slot.
At first, she was nervous, but she quickly regained her composure and decided to “make this drama a milestone in my career,” she said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
“Hiyokko” means “fledgling.” In the drama, which runs through September, Arimura stars as Mineko Yatabe, a daughter of a farming family in a village in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Her father (played by Ikki Sawamura) works away from home in Tokyo to help support his family.
Mineko originally plans to continue living in the village after graduating from high school to help her mother and grandfather’s work.
However, she changes her mind when she learns her father has gone missing.
To find him and help support her family on his behalf, the heroine goes to Tokyo to start working at a factory. She is overwhelmed by the metropolis, but gradually settles into the new environment while overcoming difficulties.
Mineko is just an ordinary girl who loves her mountain hometown and family, as well as farming.
Arimura described Mineko as “sincere and straightforward.”
“She’s always ardent, although she isn’t adept at doing things,” the actress said. “I hope the audience likes her and cheers her on.”
When the drama conducted part of its location shooting in the prefecture, a local farmhouse was used as the home of the protagonist. Arimura got to know the elderly couple who live there.
“Each time I visit the house, they treat me to vegetable and konnyaku meals,” she said. “I’m very grateful to them.”
Arimura said she usually eats a low-carbohydrate diet, but changed her diet to better depict Mineko.
“She’s the daughter of a farming family [growing rice], so I recently started eating rice and miso soup three times a day,” the actress said.
“I get my energy from rice.”
A native of Hyogo Prefecture, the 24-year-old actress gained significant popularity when she appeared in “Ama-chan” in 2013, playing the heroine’s mother as a girl. Since then, she has been in high demand for dramas and films.
Arimura starred in the 2015 film “Birigyaru,” a story of a high school underachiever who makes considerable efforts with the help of a cram school teacher to pass the entrance examination for a prestigious university.
She also served as an emcee for NHK’s Kohaku Utagassen (Red and White Year-end Song Festival) on New Year’s Eve last year.
Although everything appears to be going smoothly for Arimura, she has experienced worry in the past. “I thought I would always end up playing any given role very similarly,” the actress said.
Wanting to step out of her current characters, since around last year Arimura has been taking on the challenge of playing roles she has never tried before.
She’s now seeing how enjoyable it is to have the freedom of expressing herself in different ways.
“I hope I’ll be a new, refreshing breeze for TV viewers,” Arimura said. “After completing the drama, I want to take a trip to Scandinavia.”
