This space is usually reserved for information about programs that will be aired in the coming week, but this time we present a program that isn't going to be aired.
Late last year, comedian Beat Takeshi announced he would be playing the late Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in a television dramatization of the controversial politician's life for Fuji TV. Shortly thereafter, the project was scrapped. According to the tabloid press, Tanaka's daughter, Makiko, an equally famous and controversial politician, had put pressure on the network to cancel the drama.
But Fuji wasn't the only TV company planning a Tanaka program. Nippon TV was scheduled to air one Dec. 29, but then postponed it to January. In the middle of January, all the TV magazines reported that the special, which focused on the Lockheed bribery scandal of the early '70s that stained the Tanaka legacy, would be broadcast Feb. 3 at 9 p.m. Advance PR said that the special, which would be half-documentary, half-drama, would include a lot of new information about the scandal from the men who prosecuted the case.