Many Japanese families were split up during World War II — men sent to the front-lines, women and children evacuated to the countryside, workers shipped to factories far from home. In the chaos that followed surrender, it was difficult for people to reunite with loved ones. For years, even decades, they lived with uncertainty. Was he dead? Were they killed in the bombing raids? Did she remarry, thinking I was dead?

In the immediate postwar years, NHK radio announcers read messages over the air from people who were looking for relatives. It became a ritual, and the idea gradually morphed into TV shows where individuals would appear and ask for help in looking for family members they had lost touch with for reasons that didn't always have to do with the war. What had once been a public service turned into sentimental entertainment.

Nihon TV launched a quiz show in 1975 called "Sore wa Himitsu Desu" (It's a Secret) that included a segment where guests solicited help in finding people. It was hosted by Katsura Kokinji, who earned the nickname Crying Kokinji because of how easily he wept when families were reunited. The segment was so popular that when the show ended in 1987 it moved to Nihon TV's morning wide show "Look Look."