On March 3, the 83-year-old actress Mitsuko Mori played the part of the Showa Era writer Fumiko Hayashi for the 1,700th time at the Chunichi Gekijo in Nagoya. Mori has been playing the part in the play "Horoki" for 43 years all over Japan.
On March 9 at 9 p.m., TBS will present a special one-hour program commemorating Mori's achievement. Filmed mostly backstage at a performance in Hakata last December, the special will celebrate Mori's extraordinary career, which spans almost seven decades. During that career, the actress experienced many hardships, both professional and personal, and at one point almost died of tuberculosis. The program will also look into Mori's technique. Though she has performed "Horoki" many, many times, she always goes over her lines before every show. The program will also include interviews with show-business admirers, many of whom are young enough to be her grandchildren.
Last September NHK presented a special in-studio discussion among 88 hikikomori individuals. "Hikikomori" is a popular term used to describe agoraphobic shut-ins. It is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 1 million hikikomori in Japan.