Hanzawa Naoki

Hanzawa Naoki (半沢直樹) is a 2013 Japanese television series by Japanese broadcaster TBS based on the Hanzawa Naoki series of novels by Jun Ikeido (池井戸潤). It follows the story of Hanzawa Naoki, a banker working for the largest bank in Japan, Tokyo Chuo Bank. He faces numerous obstacles from upper management as he climbs his way up the ranks. The show received consistently high ratings: the final episode reached 42.2% in the Kanto area, the highest figure for a drama in the Heisei Era.^[1][2]

Following its huge success as the most-watched series in Japan with a 42.2 share of the audience, the TV serial Hanzawa Naoki, made its entry overseas starting with Taiwan and Hong Kong. The collection from the TV episodes and the popularity poll for the show has achieved the highest rating in three decades of Japanese television drama.^[3][4][5][6]

Cast

• Masato Sakai as Naoki Hanzawa, a charismatic banker who works for the Tokyo Central Bank.
• Aya Ueto as Hana Hanzawa, the wife of Naoki Hanzawa.
• Mitsuhiro Oikawa as Shinobu Tomari, a close friend of Naoki who he met during the induction of the bank.
• Kenichi Takito as Naosuke Kondo, a former employee of Tokyo Central Bank and close friend of Naoki and Tomari.
• Teruyuki Kagawa as Akira Ohwada, the director of Tokyo Central Bank.
• Kin'ya Kitaōji (special appearance) as Ken Nakanowatari, the chairman of Tokyo Central Bank.
• Kanji Ishimaru as Tadasu Asano, the branch manager at the Osaka Nishi branch.

Summary

Osaka arc

Naoki Hanzawa (Masato Sakai) joined the Sangyo Chuo Bank (one of the precessedors of Tokyo Chuo Bank before the merger with Tokyo Daiichi Bank) and becomes Chief of Loans Division at the Osaka Nishi branch. He is forced by branch manager Asano (Kanji Ishimaru) to grant an unsecured loan of 500 million yen to Nishi Osaka Steel. However, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt and president Mitsuru Higashida (Takashi Ukaji) along with the 500 million yen disappears. Asano shifts the blame to Hanzawa and orders him to recover the amount. Hanzawa joins forces with Kiyohiko Takeshita (Hidekazu Akai), whose business collapsed due to a chain effect from Nishi Osaka Steel's bankruptcy. The two discovered that the entire event was a scheme by Asano and Higashida. Racing against time and the Taxation Office investigation, Naoki was able to recover the entire 500 million yen for the bank. Afterwards, Hanzawa wanted to expose Asano through the media but out of sympathy to his wife and family Hanzawa leveraged his evidence against Asano so Hanzawa and his subordinates can be promoted to positions of their choice instead. Subsequently, Hanzawa is promoted to deputy Manager of the 2nd Operations Department at the Tokyo Headquarter.

Tokyo arc

One year later, Hanzawa is placed in charge of investigating Iseshima Hotel which borrowed 20 billion yen from Tokyo Chuo Bank. The hotel suffered a loss of 12 billion yen and, with an FSA (Financial Services Agency) inspection coming up, the bank may potentially have to provide a loan loss provision of 150 billion yen should Iseshima Hotel be labelled bankrupt. Hanzawa discovers that Director Ohwada (Teruyuki Kagawa) was at the forefront of providing the loan to Iseshima Hotel even though there was substantial evidence showing that the hotel was not in a good financial position. Kondo (Kenichi Takito), a friend of Hanzawa who works at Tamiya Electric, discovers that Ohwada was also behind an indirect loan to Laffite, a fashion company owned by Ohwada's wife. Hanzawa puts this evidence against Ohwada in front of a board of directors meeting leading to the demise of Director Ohwada. Seeking personal revenge for his father's death, Hanzawa forced Ohwada to kneel down before him and apologize for his actions in front of all the board members despite his supervisor and the Chairman's disapproval. During the final scene, Chairman Nakanowatari is seen giving Ohwada a small demotion to board member while Hanzawa is "exiled" from the bank to Tokyo Central Securities.

Episodes

Recognitions

• 78th Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Actor - Masato Sakai
• 78th Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor - Teruyuki Kagawa
• 78th Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Director - Katsuo Fukuzawa
• 17th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (Jul-Sept 2013): Best Drama
• 17th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (Jul-Sept 2013): Best Actor - Masato Sakai
• 17th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (Jul-Sept 2013): Best Supporting Actor - Teruyuki Kagawa

References

External links

• Hanzawa Naoki Official Website (Japanese) by Tokyo Broadcasting System
• Hanzawa Naoki at the Internet Movie Database