40+ Refreshingly New Japanese Dramas Out in Summer 2026!

After his fiancée disappears and is presumed dead, detective Isogai Shiro (Yokoyama Yu) becomes convinced that he knows the identity of the culprit. Embarking on a quest for vengeance, Shiro crosses paths with Kuroi Hinata (Sekimizu Nagisa), a young woman who can see how many people a criminal has killed simply by touching them. Since Hinata and Shiro are both hunting down a dangerous serial killer, they join forces to enact justice… or will they give in to their desire for revenge?

Adapted from Iguchi Kon and Nakamura Yuji’s manga series of the same name.

High schooler Mitsui Kota (Kato Seishiro) receives an invitation from his best friend, Uchi Shinjiro (Hagiwara Mamoru), to join a fishing club. It turns out the club is a mere facade for a vigilante group controlled by a yakuza member known as “Spinner Bait”. They are an extremely hierarchical organisation that cracks down on crime through sheer force, something that Kota struggles to come to terms with. Stuck at the very bottom of the club’s strict food chain, Kota finds himself involved in the hunt for a serial killer whose crimes have been terrifying their town.

Adapted from Konomoto Kazuya’s manga series of the same name.

According to Netflix,

With a cold voice and a blank expression, the Human Vapor appears in a shocking video, claiming responsibility for a horrifying, unprecedented murder and declaring his intent to kill again. He promises to reveal his motives, methods and next target at a press conference — then vanishes, sending a wave of unease and fear across Japan.

Detective Kenji Okamoto (Oguri Shun) and reporter Kyoko Kono (Aoi Yu) throw themselves into the investigation, determined to uncover the truth and stop the Human Vapor, who seems to toy with them as each new target simply disappears. As the Human Vapor casually announces and carries out each crime in advance, he turns his killings into a spectacle, plunging society into confusion and dread.

This is a reboot of Honda Ishiro’s The Human Vapor (1960).

Tsukishima Asumi (Ugaki Misato) is thrilled to move into her dream luxury apartment with her husband and daughter. But her happiness is short-lived: she soon discovers that Mamiya Kumiko (Shinoda Mariko), an acquaintance from her troubled past, lives in the same apartment complex.

As the families within the complex clash, their glamorous facade gives way to a dangerous power play dictated by social status, background, and wealth. The fates of these characters intertwine in bonds of betrayal and revenge, and soon no one can say who is a friend or foe anymore.

Adapted from Suenobu Keiko’s manga series of the same name.

Cooking instructor Sawada Taki (Hayami Akari) feels lonely and unloved in her marriage to an aloof husband. Meanwhile, magazine editor Saito Rei (Ito Kentaro) has been constantly fighting with his wife, who refuses to let him offer home-cooked meals to their vegetable-averse daughter.

When Taki and Rei meet through work, they find in their bond the kind of joy, comfort, and companionship they haven’t experienced in a long time. With every meal they share, Taki and Rei realise they are falling for each other — and find themselves caught between love, food, and morality.

Adapted from Omachi Terasu’s web manga series of the same name.

Nomura Hiro (Mamehara Issei) is a polite and handsome office worker who has recently married the cheerful Nomura Sae (Okada Yui). As the two begin their life together in a small apartment, Hiro feels frustrated that Sae struggles with cooking and housework, which leads to a lot of fights between the couple.

One day, when such an argument makes Sae leave the apartment and return to her parents’ home, their new next-door neighbour, the 61-year-old Shiraishi Miko (Katase Rino), shows up to introduce herself. Miko then starts helping Hiro with the housework, caring for him when he is sick and cooking for him almost every day. Hiro appreciates Miko’s devotion, which he considers to be almost maternal.

However, as their friendship becomes stronger, Hiro realises that Miko is actually in love with him. Even worse, Miko wholeheartedly believes she’s a 16-year-old girl whose romantic feelings soon spiral into a wicked obsession.

Adapted from Pumpkin’s web manga series of the same name.

Fumihara Ichiro (Furukawa Yuki) and Higashi Kei (Nagano Ryota) are colleagues. At work, Kei admires Ichiro as a mentor and supervisor and outside, the two are good friends who share a passion for movies.

While Ichiro avoids forming deep connections, Kei believes that he’s incapable of romantic love. However, after Ichiro confesses to being gay, they decide to give a relationship a try. As time goes by, their romance brings their insecurities to the surface, and they realise that, to build the life they yearn for together, they will have to figure out what love truly means.

Sakai Yuichi (Furukawa Yuuta) is a young man who longs to escape his wife Maiko’s suffocating, controlling, and excessive love. After Maiko passes away under mysterious circumstances, Yuichi becomes determined to uncover the truth behind her death. However, to his utter shock, he stumbles upon a huge web of lies and secrets that hid behind the woman he thought he knew.

In high school, Goto Naoya (Ogawa Fuminori) was the school’s “prince” with his charisma, intelligence, and wealth. Sato Takaaki (Seto Toshiki) was his personal errand boy, a gloomy outcast no one cared about. However, things have drastically changed in the past ten years. After a failed business, Naoya is now unemployed, while Takaaki is the successful CEO of a rising IT venture company. Despite their different social status, Takaaki continues to serve Naoya with complete devotion. This almost obsessive relationship, full of pride, resentment, and dependence, becomes ever more complicated as their unresolved feelings start showing themselves in the most unexpected of ways.

Adapted from Tatsumoto Mio’s manga series of the same name.

Izawa Miyuki (Kuriyama Chiaki) returns with her goal to enjoy the most satisfying drink possible at the end of the day. Miyuki’s company, Hop Housing, is expanding into Hokkaido, so she agrees to go on a business trip to help with the new branch.

When the unemployed Sanada Kentaro (Matsumoto Gaku) finally gets a job at Manpuku Entertainment, he’s assigned to a new idol project called “Eternal Boys” in which all members are in their late 30s and early 40s. Determined to become an idol, Kentaro comes together with a group of men who have experienced all sorts of joyful and sorrowful days to overcome the hurdles thrown their way and achieve their dreams.

Adapted from Fuji TV’s anime series of the same name (2022-2023).

This is an anthology series that adapts thirteen of Junji Ito’s horror tales, all of them portraying how one’s everyday life can be taken over by inexplicable and irrational terror.

After Planet H12 is attacked by a space kaiju, a single alien named Teo manages to escape and finds his way to Earth. He then leads a peaceful life as Ibuki Mitsuishi (Iwasaki Aoi), a veterinary student at Meishin University. His quiet life is interrupted when the kaiju that destroyed his home planet appears on Earth, and Teo’s instinctive desire to protect transforms him into a blue giant of light.

Ultraman Teo is part of the Ultraman Series 60th Anniversary Project.

Nanase Haruka (Yamada Ryosuke) is a graduate student in his university’s department of Genetics. Years ago, Haruka lost his younger stepsister in a flood, a loss that he has never been able to accept. When his professor asks him to analyse the DNA of the skeletal remains of a 200-year-old human from India, he’s shocked to find a 100% DNA match with his dead stepsister. At first, he believes that there’s something wrong with the test results. But when people related to the case are murdered one after the other, and the remains are stolen, Haruka embarks on a dangerous journey to crack this strange mystery.

Adapted from Matsushita Ryunosuke’s novel of the same name.

Labyrinth of Hortensia and the Minotaur is coming to Viki on August 21st.

Igawa Masaki (Tamamori Yuta) has been happily married to his wife, Mayumi (Miyazawa Emma), for the past six years. They live in a peaceful and extremely safe town, where he works as a caregiver at the local nursing home.

His life is turned upside down when Masaki suffers an accident and falls into a coma. When he wakes up a week later, no one seems to remember him, and he finds a stranger impersonating him and living in his home. Masaki then needs to find out what truly happened to him and what secrets are hidden beneath his almost perfect life.

Honjo Rino (Uchida Rio) and her husband, the kind and attentive Keita (Watanabe Keisuke), have a happy married life. On their wedding anniversary, however, Rina receives a livestream video that shows her husband having an affair with a woman she can’t recognise. In a fit of rage, she rushes to the scene and, after stabbing Keita to death, she’s killed by his mistress, Elena (Yanai Yumena).

When she opens her eyes, she finds herself back on the day of her wedding anniversary. Rino sees this as an opportunity to take her revenge, but no matter what she tries, she ends up dead at Elena’s hands. Stuck in an infinite loop of betrayal and death, Rino needs to find out why she keeps failing and — most importantly — being sent back in time over and over again.

Adapted from Akashi Mana’s web manga series of the same name.

Kimoto Mariko (Iriki Mari) is a 35-year-old freelance writer who has always prioritised her career over love, believing that a potential romance could wait until later. She then spends the night with Morihara Koki (Ishiguro Hideo), a straightforward and passionate chef, and what was supposed to be a one-night stand becomes something more when they keep crossing paths. Could Koki’s passion finally charm her into a long-term relationship?

Adapted from Mikako’s web manga series of the same name.

Set on the front lines of emergency medicine, Crossroad follows a group of young professionals — doctors, paramedics, and police officers — who are united by their sense of justice and their desire to save lives. However, in a world of broken social systems, greedy organisations, and unfair laws, these young workers find themselves torn between their ideals and reality as they do their very best to overcome the challenges thrown their way.

Hisaki Ainosuke (Sakai Sho) is a university student who is saved from a groper by an older stranger. His saviour turns out to be Okumi Hideaki (Kimisawa Yuki), the president of the company he’s about to start working for. Despite their 17-year age gap and their boss/employee relationship, Ainosuke and Hideaki find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other. As they fall in love, their lives begin to change in unexpected ways.

Adapted from Hatoya Tama’s manga series of the same name.

Sasajima Aiko (Morisako Ei) is a devoted wife who left her career behind to dedicate herself to her family life, which she believed she was happily building alongside her husband, Seiichi (Maeda Goki). After she discovers that her husband has been having an affair, she still chooses to endure the pain as she hopes he’ll eventually come back to her. However, Aiko is soon confronted with an even more shocking truth and, when she learns she’s pregnant, she makes up her mind to raise their child on her own. Resolute in her choice to focus on her and her child’s happiness, she sets out to devise her own path forward.

That’s when Seiichi comes to realise the foolishness of his actions. Hoping for a second chance, he resolves to repair the damage he has caused and win back Aiko’s heart.

Adapted from Mutsuba Masa and Uehara Hibiki’s web manga of the same name.

In Ikeburo, one of Japan’s largest entertainment districts, you’ll find the Nishi-Ikebukuro Police Station and its Victim Support Unit, a department dedicated to helping crime victims rebuild their lives. There, the kind and empathetic Kuroki Natsumi (Koike Eiko) works with psychologist Shiraishi Eriko (Kita Kana) to find the best solutions according to each and every victim’s unique circumstances.

Hanazawa Ayame (Yui Karen) can read people’s minds through their scent, which is why she struggles with romantic relationships. She’s fascinated by her coworker, Miyajima Sui (Fujibayashi Yasunari), who suffers from severe germophobia. For a long time, she’s been unable to read his mind. That is, until she gets a glimpse into his thoughts one day and discovers, to her surprise, that Sui secretly adores her. Now aware of his feelings, Ayame becomes ever more curious, but she’ll have to overcome her fears and insecurities to get close to him.

Adapted from Aoi Peki’s web manga series of the same name.

According to Nippon TV,

A declining birthrate, shortage of doctors, and a wave of maternity ward closures in rural areas…

In modern Japan, the front lines of childbirth—the very place meant to protect mothers and babies—are facing an unprecedented crisis. Even perinatal medical centers, responsible for handling high-risk pregnancies, are reaching their limits in accepting emergency cases.

Amid this harsh reality, a secret team is formed under the direct orders of the hospital director at one of Japan’s most prestigious, high-end hospitals in Tokyo. They are known as “Maternal and Neonatal Emergency Medical Unit.” Their mission is to save pregnant women with complex circumstances who have nowhere else to go—completely free of charge.

The key member of this team is Aki Mitsui (Higa Manami), a highly skilled obstetrician-gynecologist. Despite partial hearing loss in one ear, she is a self-made specialist who is more obsessed with hearing a baby’s first cry than anyone else.

Can Aki and her team become the last line of defense, saving lives hanging in the balance?

Set behind the scenes of a glamorous celebrity hospital, this medical entertainment drama depicts the fierce struggles of the elite unit as they fight to protect new life!

Struggling writer Yoshida Masamune (Nakazawa Motoki) has been going out with Hayakawa Momoka (Akita Shiori) for the past 10 years. One day, when Momoka starts acting strangely, he becomes convinced that she’s going to break up with him. Filled with anxiety, Masamune decides to go to a singles bar and ends up involved with another woman.

Adapted from Yonemai’s web manga series of the same name.

Ichinose Aoi (Uchida Yuki) is a 49-year-old woman who has seen a marriage that ended in divorce and all sorts of setbacks as she worked her way up the sales department of a fragrance company. She then meets 30-year-old Higuchi Subaru (Teranishi Takuto), a heartbroken man after having to give up on his dreams. Despite their 19-year age gap and completely different backgrounds, they grow closer and show each other the joys life still has in store for them.

Nagano Hanae (Nakamura Yurika) is a dedicated housewife who cares for her husband Hiroki (Sano Reo) and their four-year-old daughter Haruna (Kiho). Since Hiroki is always busy, working long days at the bank, Hanae has to handle childcare and housework on her own. Hanae believes that this lifestyle is to blame for their sexless marriage, which has been going on for almost five years now.

When Hanae decides to gather her courage and make advances towards her husband, she’s heartbroken to be coldly rejected. Hiroki then comes up with a proposal: he asks Hanae to find an outlet with someone else. With her husband’s consent, Hanae goes on a journey to find sexual and emotional fulfilment, discovering different ways to get the attention she’s missing.

Sakiko (Aoi Yu) is a competent and hardworking editor at a well-established publishing company. Even though she can be a bit lazy and absent-minded in her personal life, she leads a content existence alongside her husband. Things change when they get involved in an accident with another couple, whose happy lives fall apart as a consequence.

Until the T-shirt Dries is available on Netflix and Viki!

According to Nippon TV,

Sota Yukimura (Matsumura Hokuto) has been deeply in love with the same woman for twenty-five years, ever since they were children. His reason for watching her from the shadows is deeply intertwined with a gruesome incident that occurred twenty-five years ago, and the dark secrets they both carry. The moment he breaks his long silence to finally approach her, their ordinary reality takes a thrilling and unpredictable turn.

It is human nature to want to know everything about the person you love. But how far is too far? And what if this love has been orchestrated from the very beginning…? A love story so innocent, yet so dangerous—the ultimate romantic suspense is about to unfold.

25 Years of You is coming to Netflix on July 17th!

High school senior Takemiya Natsuki (Fukada Ryusei) isn’t in the best spirits to take his university entrance exams. Right before summer break, his girlfriend broke up with him, his mock exam scores are terrible, and he has no hope for a bright future. That’s when his older sister asks her boyfriend, the university student Kobayakawa Sota (Ukisho Hidaka), to become Natsuki’s tutor.

To Natsuki’s surprise, he finds himself falling for Sota, whose warmth, kindness, and charm seem to be irresistible. Even though he knows that he shouldn’t be falling for his own sister’s boyfriend right before his university entrance exams, the more Natsuki tries to suppress his emotions, the more enamoured he becomes.

Your Summer, My Storm is coming to Viki on July 14th!

Sequel to That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Dogengers (2025), a story about travelling far away just to appreciate the joys of your hometown.

Kusakabe Anna (Matsumoto Wakana) is a former employee at a major management consulting firm. Well-known for being a talented consultant, Anna shocks her department when she suddenly announces her resignation and her resolve to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).

In reality, Anna is far from being financially independent, so she makes do while working several part-time jobs. One of these gigs introduces her to Seo Mizuki (Sano Hayato), an eccentric character designer working at a small design company. Even though she has no business with him, Anna becomes instinctively concerned when she sees Mizuki accept poorly paid work from a questionable client. In her attempt to help, Anna ends up learning the ropes of his character creation work.

Your Love So Invincible is available on Viki.

A spin-off from Yasuda Junichi’s A Samurai in Time (2024), Shinpai Muyonosuke: Tenka Gomen follows a mysterious swordsman who defeats evil with his catchphrase “No need to worry!”

According to Variety,

The story follows Shigetou Shuji (Mizukami Koshi), the sole survivor of a mass stabbing at a crowded station plaza. When the suspected attacker – identified as a drug addict – dies at the scene, a stranger appears at the hospital to warn Shuji that he has 10 days to stay alive. Targeted again almost immediately, Shuji is rescued by detective Soma Ryosuke (Takahashi Issei), who turns to former television journalist Yarimizu Nanao (Saitoh Takumi) for help sheltering him. The trio’s investigation draws them into a sprawling conspiracy involving corporate malfeasance, political interference and a concealed illness.

Adapted from Ota Ai’s novel of the same name.

Kaede (Yoshikawa Ai) is an elementary school teacher who loves detective stories. She was raised by her beloved grandfather (Okuda Eiji), now a 71-year-old man suffering from Lewy body dementia. Kaede believes that, due to his illness, he hallucinates strange scenes.

Until one day, Kaede notices that her grandfather reacts differently when told about a mystery. It’s as if he can see the truth in front of his eyes, gaining the ability to solve any puzzle logically. It’s like he turns into one of the master detectives from the books they have read together, which gives her an idea: from then on, Kaede will bring everyday mysteries for her grandfather to solve.

After Sano Shogo’s (Sasaki Kuranosuke) ex-wife disappeared three years ago, he was never the same. As a detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division, Shogo seems to be fearless, recklessly doing whatever it takes to catch a criminal.

Sano is up for a huge challenge when the body of a neurosurgeon is found with four knives stabbed into his throat. Alongside his partner Hazumi Anna (Tsunematsu Yuri) and researcher Kanzaki Toru (Nakagawa Taishi), Sano embarks on a dangerous mission to catch the culprit.

Uramashi Naoto (GACKT) is known as “the master of fabrication”, a cunning lawyer who uses all sorts of masterful schemes and manipulative tactics to prove his clients’ innocence. Going head-to-head against powerful figures willing to fabricate anything to evade justice, Naoto fights deception with deception to expose the truth hidden behind an ocean of lies.

Black Trick: The Lawyer Who Controls Justice is available on Netflix, with new episodes coming out every Thursday.

Onizuka Eikichi (Sorimachi Takashi) is a former biker gang member who becomes a teacher with unorthodox methods. Now in his 50s, Onizuka will have to face the challenges of the modern education system in the Reiwa era.

Adapted from Fujisawa Tooru’s manga series, Great Teacher Onizuka. This is a sequel to Fuji TV’s GTO (1998).

GTO is available on Netflix, with new episodes coming out every Monday.

Nanami Rintaro (Aiba Masaki) is back from the US, eager to share his recently acquired knowledge with the rest of the SSBC Violent Crimes Unit. Now a tight-knit team, the SSBC is ready to take on a new series of challenging cases while handling the rivalry with the First Investigative Division.

Sequel to TV Asahi’s The Big Chase: Tokyo SSBC Files (2025)

Sakura Maki (Naka Riisa), Yamaji Haruka (Non), and Nagano Kaoruko (Fukagawa Mai) are three women in their mid-30s who have completely different personalities. These three former high school classmates moved to Tokyo years ago, dreaming of better, brighter lives, but encountered a world of challenges instead. As they navigate the tricky waters of love, work, and family together, they help each other build their own destinies, ones that they can truly call their own.

Remake of Nothing but Thirty (China, Dragon TV, 2020)

With the rise in international crime, the Japanese government decided to establish the GATE24 (Global Airport Task Enforcement), the “ultimate gatekeepers” on Japan’s borders. However, with airport operations divided among several agencies, the members of GATE24 struggle to work with other departments, which often see them as an unnecessary bother. Even though their work isn’t easy, customs officer Mori Machi (Shuri) and her colleagues overcome institutional barriers to investigate smuggled goods and illegal weapons and uncover the truth behind the trickiest of cases.

GATE24: The Border is coming to Netflix in late July!

Taichi Sora (Suzuka Ouji) is a capable and intelligent lawyer who passed Japan’s bar examination with ease. However, he can’t find a job because he stutters, especially when stressed or under pressure. The only place willing to take him in is a small, unconventional law firm. There, he meets lawyer Hoshi Hideyuki (Inagaki Goro), who never works on a case he can’t win, and the firm’s director Yukimura Asumi (Koyuki), who only handles pro bono cases.

Alongside Hideyuki and Asumi, Sora discovers that when he speaks to the rhythm of rap music, his stutter miraculously disappears, so he starts working on difficult but socially significant cases.

Detective Yagami Eiko (Kuroki Meisa) works for the Organised Crime Countermeasures Division at the Ueno Central Police Station. She’s a tough-skinned, fearless professional who can navigate the underworld of the yakuza or the Chinese mafia as needed.

Years ago, Eiko’s husband, a freelance journalist, passed away under strange circumstances. Even though the case was ruled a suicide, Eiko suspects a cover-up. She’s determined to find the truth and ensure that justice — or could it be revenge? — prevails.

Adapted from Fukamachi Akio’s novel series of the same name.

The new season picks up immediately where the last season left off. Nogi Yusuke (Sakai Masato) has just finished a series of missions involving the international terrorist organisation Tent. He is then confronted with a signal for an emergency mobilisation from his intelligence unit, Beppan.

Hoshino Midori (Hashimoto Kanna) has become exhausted by her busy life. When the beauty clinic she works for goes bankrupt, her brother suggests she spend some time at the seaside villa left by their late grandmother. There, she meets the villa’s enigmatic manager, Nishigami (Chae Jong-hyeop), who helps her rediscover meaning in her life.

The Rules of Vacation is coming to Netflix on July 31st!