The Best TV Shows on NHK

Every NHK Show Ranked From Best To Worst

As of May 2026, our compilation of NHK’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique shows. NHK has delivered an expansive roster of over 20 shows, dating from 1951 all the way to 2025. Icons of NHK, NHK Kōhaku Uta-Gassen and Sister Ma made their debut in 1951 and 1979, setting industry standards.

  • Masamune Shogun
    Masamune Shogun (1987)9.0

    Broadcast TV drama NHK broadcast on January 4 to December 13, 1987 (Showa 62). In the questionnaire survey conducted by NHK, it is shining in the most favorite river drama. The original is Yamaka Sosaichi's novel "Date Masamune", the biggest drama on the theme of the Date house was the first time in 17 years since the "Shinnogi remained" (1970), which painted Datejo in the Edo period. It depicts the life of Matsudo Date of Sengoku warrior · Date Masamune who built the foundation of Sendai clan 620,000 stones in his generation as a result of my own wisdom and talent.

  • Dear Radiance
    Dear Radiance (2024)9.0

    Murasaki Shikibu (Yoshitaka Yuriko), the heroine of this story, wrote the bestseller 'The Tale of Genji,' transcending a thousand years during the Heian period. She weaves the story of Hikaru Genji, fueled by her love for Fujiwara no Michinaga (Emoto Tasuku), with her hidden passion and incomparable imagination. It is a tale of a woman who lived with unchanging love in an ever-changing world. (From TV JAPAN)

  • The 13 Lords of the Shogun
    The 13 Lords of the Shogun (2022)8.5

    Following the ascension to power of Taira no Kiyomori, the Minamoto clan is exiled. Minamoto no Yoritomo meets Masako, the sister of Hōjō Yoshitoki and later marries her. Following this marriage, the gears of Yoshitoki's destiny begin to turn.

  • Toshiie and Matsu
    Toshiie and Matsu (2002)8.3

    The 41st NHK Taiga Drama is Toshiie to Matsu. During the turbulent Warring States Era, one man's life and career intertwined with the three great generals of Japanese history-Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. With political savvy and the support of his fiercely loyal wife, Maeda Toshiie rose to second in power in the shogunate and built up a fiefdom that encompassed Echizen, Noto and Kaga.

  • Hiyokko
    Hiyokko (2017)8.2

    The 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?

  • Anpan
    Anpan (2025)8.2

    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.

  • Amachan
    Amachan (2013)8.1

    Aki Amano, a high-school girl from Tokyo moves to the Sanriku Coast in the Tohoku region to become a female diver. She becomes a local idol, then returns to Tokyo to try to become a real idol, and finally returns to Tohoku to help revitalize the area after the Great East Japan earthquake.

  • NHK Kōhaku Uta-Gassen
    NHK Kōhaku Uta-Gassen (1951)8.0

    NHK Kōhaku Uta-Gassen (NHK紅白歌合戦, "NHK Red and White Song Battle"), more commonly known simply as Kōhaku, is an annual New Year's Eve television special held on December 31 every year, and produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on NHK General TV, BS4K, BS8K, and NHK radio (nationally) and internationally on NHK World Premium and some overseas (mainly cable) broadcasters who buy the program. The program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. The "red" team or "akagumi" (紅組) is composed of all female artists (or groups with female vocals), while the "white" team or "shirogumi" (白組) is all male (or groups with male vocals).

  • Himawari
    Himawari (1996)8.0

    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.

  • Junjo Kirari
    Junjo Kirari (2006)8.0

    The 74th NHK Asadora Drama is Junjo Kirari, which means something along the lines of "pure-hearted Kirari." The story is set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture in the era around the Second World War. When the story opens in 1928, the heroine, Sakurako, is a very active seven-year-old girl. Indeed, even in the first episode she exhibits her confidence and enthusiasm. But above all else, Sakurako is interested in becoming a jazz pianist, and music features extensively in the plot.

  • YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
    YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (2024)8.0

    Welcome to Yamauchi, a world inhabited by the Yatagarasu, a race of three-legged ravens who shapeshift into humans. The land is divided into four regions—North, South, East, and West—each ruled by a noble family. Yukiya, the son of a leader in the North, is shocked by a call to attend to the Imperial Prince. Murder, mysteries, and an invasion from an unexpected enemy await in this epic fantasy.

  • Ranman
    Ranman (2023)7.8

    A passionate botanist dedicates his life to his love of plants, overcoming hardship across changing eras with the support of his devoted wife.

  • What Will You Do, Ieyasu?
    What Will You Do, Ieyasu? (2023)7.7

    He lost his land, his father, and was torn from his mother. Lonely and wounded, young Takechiyo thought he'd live out his days quietly as a hostage. But fate had other plans. Inspired by Mikawa warriors, he becomes a minor lord and dives into a war-torn world ruled by monsters like Nobunaga and Shingen.Life-or-death moments, miscalculations, and no time to breathe—what will you do, Ieyasu?

  • Rin-ne
    Rin-ne (2015)7.6

    As a child Sakura Mamiya mysteriously disappeared in the woods behind her grandma's home. She returned whole and healthy, but since then she has had the power to see ghosts. Now a teenager, she just wishes the ghosts would leave her alone! At school, the desk next to Sakura's has been empty since the start of the school year, then one day her always-absent classmate shows up, and he's far more than what he seems!

  • Omusubi
    Omusubi (2024)7.5

    A Heisei youth graffiti drama, in which the heroine Yoneda Yui (Hashimoto Kanna), born in the first year of the Heisei era, connects people's hearts to the future as a nutritionist. Always cherishing her individuality, she sometimes struggles, but powerfully and joyfully pushes through the turbulent Heisei and Reiwa eras.

  • Den-noh Coil
    Den-noh Coil (2007)7.4

    Den-noh Coil, Coil — A Circle of Children, is a Japanese science fiction anime television series depicting a near future where semi-immersive augmented reality technology has just begun to enter the mainstream. The series takes place in the fictional city of Daikoku, a hotbed of AR development with an emerging city-wide virtual infrastructure. It follows a group of children as they use AR glasses to unravel the mysteries of the half real, half Internet city, using a variety of illegal software tools, techniques, and virtual pets to manipulate the digital landscape. Den-noh Coil, in development for over a decade, is the series director debut of Japanese animator Mitsuo Iso. It premiered on NHK Educational TV on May 12, 2007. Due to the animators involved in its production and its unusually high-profile television broadcast time slot, Den-noh Coil was highly anticipated.

  • Love and Glory
    Love and Glory (2006)7.0

    Kazutoyo lived during the end of the Sengoku period (1546-1605). He was the first feudal lord of the fief of Tosa on the island of Shikoku. He served Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Chiyo (1557-1617) was his wife, and was known in history for her dedication and devotion to her husband (like Matsu was to Toshiie in Toshiie to Matsu). She is the daughter of a samurai who served the feudal lord Asai.

  • Oshin
    Oshin (1983)6.8

    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.

  • Rocky Rackat
    Rocky Rackat (1993)6.7

  • Sister Ma
    Sister Ma (1979)N/A

    A serialized television series, aired in 1979, based on Hasegawa Machiko's "Sazae-san Uchiakebanashi" (Sazae-san Confessions), which depicts the true vibrant energy and strength of the common people, through their laughter and tears, from the pre-war to the post-war period in Japan.