Oshin is a Japanese serialized morning television drama, which aired on broadcaster NHK from April 4, 1983 to March 31, 1984. The series follows the life of Shin Tanokura during the Meiji period up to the early 1980s. Shin was called "Oshin", which is an archaic Japanese cognomen.

A Japanese girl from a poor family named Hanako went on an adventure to study in a girl's Christian school in Tokyo. She found her passion in English and step by step made her dream come true.

The 77th NHK Asadora is Chiritotechin. Location includes Fukui prefecture. This renzoku is about Wada Kiyomi (referred to as Kiyomi-B), a girl brought up in Fukui who moves to Osaka in search of her soul. In Osaka, Kiyomi-B becomes enchanted with rakugo, a Japanese traditional form of comic storytelling, and pursues a career in rakugo. In the summer of 1982, Kiyomi-B and her family move to Obama of Fukui, her father's hometown. Kiyomi-B's grandmother and uncle welcome the family, but Shotaro the grandfather does not allow Masanori to take over the Wakasa lacquer chopsticks making. One day, Kiyomi-B listens to rakugo at Shotaro's factory and becomes fond of it. Shotaro and Kiyomi-B become close through rakugo.

In wartime Japan, spirited Nobu transforms from a militarist schoolgirl into Kochi’s first female reporter, as she and childhood friend Takashi endure personal loss and struggle to find their own truths amid the upheaval of the Showa era.

Born in September of 1995, Momone Nagaura lived with her parents, grandfather, and sister in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. After failing her college entrance exams, she went to live in Tome City with an acquaintance of her grandfather's. Momone's life changes when she meets a popular weather forecaster from Tokyo, who teaches her how weather forecasts can predict the future. She decides to study to become a weather forecaster.

Okuhara Natsu was born in Tokyo in 1937. In 1945, she loses both parents to war and becomes an orphan, but her father’s comrade, Shibata Takeo, takes her in and moves to Tokachi in Hokkaido. In an unfamiliar land surrounded by unfamiliar people, Natsu feels lost at first, but surrounded by Tokachi’s vast nature and its strong, yet compassionate people, she grows up to be a strong girl. When Natsu enters elementary school, she meets Yamada Tenyo who draws lovely pictures of horses. Tenyo tells her that in America, animation in which pictures move is becoming popular, Natsu’s curiosity is piqued. Upon graduating high school, Natsu goes to Tokyo to look up her brother, and takes a jump into the world of animation.

The series takes place in 1962 Osaka. Hanaoka Machiko, 37, is single and works at a hardware store in Osaka City while doing literary work. One day, she falls ill due to overwork and falls in love with Tokunaga Kenjiro, the doctor who examines her. Kenjiro and Machiko marry. But Kenjiro, who lost his first wife to illness, lives not just with his five children, but his brother, sister, and parents. In a comical and heart-warming way, the drama depicts Machiko's struggle with the new family while pursuing her career as a novelist.

The story follows Minamida Nozomi, the charming female protagonist whose company's performance deteriorates due to the collapse of the bubble economy and who is forced to quit her job as she is prevented from getting married and starting a family. However, after her younger brother is involved in a theft incident within her family, she decides to become a lawyer. She passed the difficult bar exam and faced the harsh reality of legal training in Fukushima.

In Meiji-era Matsue, a fallen samurai’s daughter and a lonely foreign teacher connect through ghost stories and an unlikely friendship.

Born in 1937 in Osaka as the eldest daughter, Kawahara Kimiko moves to Shigaraki with her family at the age of 9. She works to support her family from a young age. Eventually, she jumps into the male world of pottery and becomes a pioneer of female ceramic arts. After marrying her husband who is also involved in ceramics and owning her own kiln, she raises her two children while struggling to create unique ware.

Suenaga Kokoro, an international flight attendant, lives with her mother and grandmother who operate a traditional restaurant in a lively downtown district of Tokyo where customs and traditions run deep and neighbors know each other like a big family.

The story is about a young woman who becomes a landscape gardener following her father's wishes. Wakaba, born and brought up in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, lived happily with her parents and younger brother until the Great Hanshin Earthquake shook and destroyed the city in 1995. In the disaster, Wakaba loses her father, who was an architect and moves with her mother and brother to Obi, old castle town in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, where her grandmother lives with her uncle and aunt. Living in Obi's rich natural environment, Wakaba learns that plants can heal people's hearts. She makes a resolution to return to Kobe and reconstruct the city abundant in greenery.

Iwakura Mai lives with her parents Kota and Megumi and older brother Haruto. Her father Kota runs a small factory in Higashi Osaka, a district that is known for its craftsmen. Mai is shy and withdrawn. But when she visits her grandmother Shoko who lives on Nagasaki’s Goto Islands which has a rich natural environment, she is entranced by the Baramon kites that catch the wind and soar high in the sky. Wanting to fly high in the sky like these kites, Mai’s longing swells into a dream to become a pilot. Even though she works hard, the path to getting there is tougher than she had imagined. As Mai deepens her ties with the people living in her two hometowns of Higashi Osaka and Goto, her dream eventually takes a new form. She gathers enthusiastic friends to build a small electric plane that can fly to and from the islands. Her dream becomes a wing that carries everyone’s dreams and takes off.

Mizuki is a would-be actress who has yet to attain her goal, struggles to keep the dream in her heart alive while dealing with the reality of her normal life, far away from lights, cameras, and action she longs for. Despite words of warnings from her family, which includes her birth and step mothers, intended to keep her from reaching her destiny, she actually makes it onto a set of one of the film companies in Tokyo. She experiences the peaks and valleys of a starting actress, but receives a blow when news of the company collapses and eventually closes. Mizuki returns home, but, the fire once lit, still burns.

The 61st NHK Asadora Drama is Asuka. Set in Kyoto in the home of a traditional Japanese candy-maker, Asuka is the story of one young girl's dream to one day walk in her father's shoes and become a top candy-maker in the male-dominated world of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). Asuka grows to be a healthy, adventurous young girl with a deep curiosity and, a desire to become a candy-maker like her father. This NHK drama is one of the best in years with an excellent cast, a well-developed story based on extensive research into the traditional worlds of candy making and the tea ceremony in Kyoto, and beautiful scenery and settings in Kyoto and the surrounding areas.

The 59th NHK Asadora Drama is Yanchakure. Location includes Osaka. In Osaka, "yanchakure" is a bit of an old word which is used to describe tomboyish or mischievous young girls. Mizushima Nagisa happens to be such a girl, that, no matter how well-intentioned her motives nor how hard she tries, Nagisa just seems to end up failing. In fact, she has failed at different things in her life so many times that she has come to see it as a source of personal strength, her philosophy being one of, "It's natural for a human being to fail many times in the course of their life and thanks to those failures we can become adults."

This drama is the tale of one high spirited, strong-willed young woman and her struggle to fulfill her lifelong ambition of becoming a carpenter and building homes. The story takes place from the later part of the Showa era to present day Heisei rule. The heroine of the story, Kawashima Urara, lost her father at the tender age of seven and this drama depicts her life as she grows from a young school girl, through puberty and adolescence and on into her adult years as an independent woman who owns her own carpentry business. As Urara grows into a beautiful and strong woman and a talented carpenter, her family around her goes through many difficult and trying times. This story of becoming an independent businesswoman in the male-dominated world of carpentry accurately reflects the lives and struggles of the young women in present day Japan who are trying to make a career for themselves in addition to balancing the demands of family obligations, friends, and lovers.

The 57th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama. Story's settings include Kobe and Sasayama. It is a story about the conflicts between generations and the relationships within families. A strong mother-daughter theme and a sister-brother theme exist.

Set in Hakata, the series is about a young man who wants to play rock music even though his father expects him to follow him in making Hakata ningyou (a traditional Japanese clay doll). One of the few Asadora starring a male character.