Japan-Indonesia Co-production Drama “WHEN YOU WISH UPON A SAKURA”

  • The Grant Program for Promotion of Cultural Collaboration
Grant Year
Fiscal Year 2015
Grant Amount
JPY 13,315,000
Country of Activity
Indonesia, Japan

This project is the sequel to the 2013 Japan/Indonesia co-produced drama “Aishiteru,” which was co-produced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It’s a love story in which a young Japanese man and an Indonesian woman fall in love through SNS. Co-produced by Indonesian production company DNA Production and Fuji TV, it stars the popular Indonesian actress Chelsea Islan and Japanese actor Shu Watanabe. The drama is composed of a Japanese and Indonesian part, with the script co-developed, and the main part provided by the staff, producers, and directors on both sides. In January 2016 location scouting took place, with filming beginning in Yogyakarta in February, and then continuing in Tokyo. Of the total 2-hour drama, half was composed of Indonesian locations, and half Japanese. Using the cooperative policy from the previous year, smooth interaction was achieved between both countries from filming to post-production and publicity before broadcast. On April 25th 2016, the first hour-long episode was broadcast on WAKUWAKU JAPAN, with the second hour-long episode shown the following day.

(c) Fuji Television Network, Inc.
Related Countries
Japan, Indonesia
Co-organizer(s), Cooperator(s)
D.N.A Production
WAKUWAKU JAPAN CORPORATION
AMUSE INC.

From the Organizer

We were initially concerned about differences in culture and language, but thanks to it being the second year, and the hard work of the cast and staff, our fears were unfounded. It resulted in a drama very unique for Japan, and a work that brought out the best of both countries. However, due to limitations of preparation time, the majority of the script was made by the Japanese side, so we’d like to consider in the future whether we could incorporate opinions from the Indonesian side a little further in advance. This project could only have been realized with the grant from the Asia Center. The results are highly meaningful from a standpoint of cultural exchange.

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