Kaseifu no Mita

The Asuda family, a father, Keiichi, and four children ranging in age from 5 to 16, are still grieving over the death of the mother, Nagiko. Through an agency, the father hires a new housekeeper to take charge of the housework. They get Mita, an impassive person who does her job impeccably, but speaks in monotones and completely suppresses her emotions. The agency owner warns the father to be careful about what family members ask Mita to do, because she will do anything that she is ordered to do, even going as far as to kill someone. The only thing she will not do is a task that requires her to smile or to speak about or reveal her past. During this period of time, the family becomes fragmented, as they each blame themselves for the mother's death. Mita helps guide the family through these problems, though she does not explicitly give them advice.

Eventually, the family manages to come to terms with their mother's death. They in turn help Mita to overcome her extremely traumatic past, because of which she cannot smile or speak her mind. Thanks to their constant care for her, Mita gradually starts to discover love again. However, Mita knows that she cannot become the stepmother of these children, and thus takes the drastic step of becoming a cruel and ultimately short-lived stepmother. In the end, Urara, the children's aunt, becomes their stepmother. Mita then reveals that she cannot work for them anymore, since she has found employment elsewhere. On Christmas Eve, the family finally managed to make Mita smile during their last dinner together. With the family having found their priorities in life, Mita leaves the family on Christmas Day to work for yet another household.

The characters include Urara, a kindly and well-intended woman who is the sister of the deceased mother but is also something of a klutz with a knack for showing up at inopportune moments and messing up, and Yoshiyuki Yuuki, who is Urara's father, the children's grandfather, who holds his son-in-law responsible for his daughter Nagiko's death. His anger and frustration gradually dissipate over the course of the events of the series. There is also a nosy and unpleasant neighbor who behaves in quite a cruel way to the Asudas, despite that fact that she has her own problems.

Kaseifu no Mita was first announced on 12 August 2011.[7] It was announced that Nanako Matsushima will be the lead actress in the series.[7] This is her first role in a television drama series after a two-year hiatus.[7] Nanako said that she was familiar with the scriptwriter Kaseifu no Mita, since they had collaborated on drama series like Great Teacher Onizuka and Majo no Jōken (which are Nanako's signature works), though this was the first time they had collaborated on a family drama.[7] She added that she was "happy to challenge a new genre."[7]

Kaseifu no Mita was aired in the Nippon Television's Tears Wednesday drama time slot, which is aired every Wednesday, 10 to 10:54pm.[7] Due to the popularity of this series, episodes 9, 10 and 11 all had an extended broadcast.[8] Before the final episode of the series was shown, an hour-long special program featuring special behind-the-scenes footage of Kaseifu no Mita was broadcast.[8]

Scriptwriter Kazuhiko Yukawa announced that there will be no more sequels to this series, despite its popularity.[6] He said that he wanted "to leave [the remainder] to the viewers' imaginations".[6]

Kaseifu no Mita was extremely well received by the Japanese television viewers. It garnered an average viewership rating of 25.17%, the highest of any 2011 Japanese television dramas.[9] In addition, the "Mita" effect is attributed as one of the main factors that allowed broadcaster Nippon Television to become the top broadcaster in Japan in 2011, beating the previous record-holder Fuji Television.[11]

In particular, its last episode achieved the highest viewership rating of 40.0%.[12] At one point in the broadcast, the viewership ratings hit 42.8% in the Kantō region.[12] This makes this episode the second-most watched Japanese television program of 2011, after NHK's 62nd Kouhaku Uta Gassen program.[4] The episode also ranks as the third-most viewed in the history of Japanese television dramas, excluding NHK's "Asadora" and "Taiga" dramas.[12] Oricon noted that previously, viewership ratings of 30% were considered as the norm, but in modern days, viewership ratings of 40% can be considered "divine".[12] Additionally, this episode achieved viewership ratings of 36.4% and 34.6% in the Kansai region and Nagoya respectively.[13]

The theme song for the television drama Kaseifu no Mita is Yasashiku Naritai by Kazuyoshi Saito.[16] This was revealed in an announcement made on September 29, 2011.[16] Yasashiku Naritai is the first song Kazuyoshi has provided for a Japanese television drama since the 2009 NHK drama Keiji no Genba 2.[16] Main leads from Kaseifu no Mita were also featured in the song's music video.[16]

The song later became Kazuyoshi's 39th single, and this single album was released in Japan by Victor Entertainment[17] on November 2, 2011.[18] The single debuted at the 6th position on the Oricon TOP10 weekly charts, with its sales boosted by the good reception of Kaseifu no Mita.[18] It sold 70 thousand copies as of December 27, 2011.[18] Yasashiku Naritai is also the winner of the "Best Theme Song" category at the 71st Television Drama Academy Awards.[5]

A South Korean remake titled The Suspicious Housekeeper starring Choi Ji-woo and Lee Sung-jae was produced in 2013.[19]

• Official website (in Japanese)