Pre-premiere hype is important for Japanese TV drama series since their broadcast runs tend to be limited to 13 weeks. They don't have time to build an audience the way more open-ended series do in the West. As many people as possible have to tune in right from the start.

Fuji TV's "Change" (Monday, 9 p.m.) has it easier than most since it stars Takuya Kimura, the most bankable actor in Japan. The opening episodes of all his series since 1998 have ranked at the top of the ratings charts. More significantly, the news that Kimura, who tends to play strong silent types in glamorous professions, was going to take on the role of a nerdy public schoolteacher elevated to the position of Japan's youngest prime minister, made the series more topical since it seemed he would be playing against type.

But around March, rumors started circulating that the show wouldn't be ready by mid-April, when all the other spring drama series would start. Some weekly magazines speculated that the delay was due to unfinished scripts, while others thought the producers wanted to avoid a head-to-head confrontation with "Gokusen," a Nihon TV series that was also a guaranteed ratings winner even though it was scheduled for a different night.