Actress Riko Fukumoto / Actor Shinki Sugo Premium Drama "In the Town Where Forget-Me-Nots Bloom ~Azumino Medical Records~"

2026.06.26

The drama served as a catalyst for starting "life planning discussions."

Actor Araki Sugou / Actor Riko Fukumoto

The premium drama "In the Town Where Forget-Me-Nots Bloom ~Azumino Medical Records~," scheduled to begin airing on NHK BS on June 28, 2026, is set in Azumino, Nagano, and depicts the nature of medical care, focusing on whether to prolong life or provide end-of-life care. This time, we interviewed Riko Fukumoto and Shinki Sugo, who play the main roles in the drama, about its appeal.

■Thoughts on being cast

Riko Fukumoto: This drama wasn't a typical medical drama about "curing diseases," but rather a work that gave us a chance to think about "death," something that everyone will have to accept someday. This was my first time playing a nurse, and I was happy because I had always wanted to try a role related to work.

Shinki Sugo: This drama deals with heavy themes such as life support and end-of-life care, but these are also part of everyday life and things that anyone could potentially experience. I wanted to seriously engage with such a work. At the same time, I wanted the concept of "life planning," which I experienced when my grandmother passed away, to become a more familiar concept for people in the future.

■ Highlights of "In the Town Where Forget-Me-Nots Bloom ~A Medical Record in Azumino~"

Fukumoto: This drama is set in Azumino, Nagano Prefecture, and seasonal flowers, as well as flowers that serve as themes for the patients who appear in the story, add color to the narrative. The drama features a wide variety of patient cases, including patients who can communicate, patients who cannot, and patients who have no hope of recovery and are forced to make life choices. Each of them has different problems, and the drama delicately portrays how nurses and doctors deal with such patients from the perspectives of various characters. At times, there are serious scenes that require thinking about death, such as end-of-life care, but the seasonal flowers that frequently appear in the drama become a source of healing amidst the heavy theme of medicine, and I think one of the highlights of this work is how they brighten the atmosphere.

Sugo: First of all, I hope you enjoy the beautiful scenery and landscapes that can only be filmed in Nagano and Azumino, where this drama is set. In this drama, two young and inexperienced nurses and medical interns raise questions about life and death from the perspective of newcomers and also from the perspective of human beings. This is a distinctive feature that is rarely depicted in typical medical dramas, and the human drama of each character that accompanies it, as well as the way the two grow through various experiences, is very impressive and something I would like everyone to pay attention to. Also, although there are parts that deal with heavy themes, the flowers that appear in the drama change the tone, and I feel that it is a work that can be received without feeling that the heavy themes are heavy.

■The appeal of each role

Fukumoto: The character I play, Tsukioka Mikoto, is a third-year nurse who was born and raised in Matsumoto, Nagano. She is a cheerful and bright person, but also someone with a strong sense of self. She has doubts and dissatisfactions about the organization and the way medicine is run, and one of her charms is her strength in being able to express those opinions frankly. This was my first time playing a nurse and my first time appearing in a medical drama, so I went to a hospital to learn about the kind of work they do and the daily routines of nurses, and I tried to imagine what it's like in my mind before filming, which allowed me to really immerse myself in the character of Mikoto.

Sugo: I play Katsura Shotaro, a resident physician who loves flowers and has just graduated from medical school and moved to Azusagawa Hospital, the setting of this drama. He is a kind young man who thinks of his patients more than himself, and at times he is clumsy. He is not afraid to speak his mind to senior doctors and will express his opinions. However, I think that this clumsy side is what makes Shotaro so appealing, as it shows how seriously he takes his work. In this drama, Shotaro is responsible for explaining the patient's condition when obtaining informed consent. This is a crucial moment in the story, so in order to make the words in the script more convincing, I researched the case myself and drew diagrams to understand it better as I worked on developing the character.

■ The appeal of acting, a career you can only pursue once in your life.

Fukumoto: When I was in my first year of high school, a friend encouraged me to audition for the Toho Cinderella Audition, and that's how I started my career in entertainment. At the time, I had a desire to change something about myself, and I wanted to challenge myself in this one life I have. In high school, I balanced my studies with acting, and after graduating and moving to Tokyo, I also attended university for a while, but now I'm focusing solely on acting. I think the appeal of acting is that you can experience things you wouldn't normally experience in everyday life, and you can create entertainment that leaves a lasting impression on people's hearts.

Sugo: While I was in university, as the time to look for a job approached, I found selling clothes at a clothing store as a part-time job very enjoyable, and I even considered pursuing that path. However, since we only live once, I thought about what other interests I might have besides clothes. At that time, acting was one of the options I considered, and as I participated in workshops and such, I naturally became engrossed in it. In this job, there are no fixed right answers, and everything depends on your own choices. That's why I think it's a job where you can take responsibility for yourself in a good way, and that's what makes acting so appealing.

■A message to university students through this work

Fukumoto: This film not only allows you to appreciate the beauty of nature, but it also gives you a chance to think about death, which will one day come. Death is something we usually tend to avoid, but I think this is a good opportunity to think about what you can do when the time comes, so please do watch it!

Sugo: When you're passionate about something, you're bound to encounter difficulties and conflicts. At times like that, just like the relationship between Mikoto and Shoutarou in this story, you can be helped by talking to your friends, so I hope you'll cherish your connections with others and do your best!

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on January 15, 2026 by Kyohei Nakazawa, a second-year student at Waseda University

Premium Drama "In the Town Where Forget-Me-Nots Bloom ~Azumino Medical Records~"

[Broadcast Schedule] BS June 28, 2026 (Sun) 10:00 PM Start <8 episodes total>
BSP4K, starts July 26, 2026 (Sun) at 10:00 PM <8 episodes total>
*Due to the FIFA World Cup programming, BS will broadcast the program first.
[Original work] Sosuke Natsukawa
[Screenplay] Daisuke Habara
[Music] Kotringo
[Cast] Riko Fukumoto, Shinki Sugo / Yoshimi Tsuchimura, Momoko Tanabe, Rei Shirakawa, Hajime Okayama, Yuriko Hirooka
Yudai Sawayanagi, Toshiki Seto, Nozomi Muraoka, Shoki Nakayama, Nanaha Itose
Maho Nonami, Yorie Yamashita / Hirotaro Honda, Yasuko Tomita / Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Takeshi Naito, and others
[Executive Producers] Marina Ishii (AX-ON), Shunichi Higuchi (NHK)
[Producer] Katsunori Motonobu (Union Films)
[Direction] Tatsuya Ikezawa, Makoto Naganuma, Kumiko Nagao