There is just something about watching a gorgeous younger man fall ridiculously in love with a hardworking, usually overlooked, older woman. This genre of relationship has gotten tons of attention and credit in the Korean drama shows known as noona romances. Japan also is not short of entertainment, and there is an abundance of this storyline in Japanese dramas for you to dip your toes in.
For those of you who love the older woman and younger man storyline as much as I do, here are recommendations for ten Japanese dramas to get you started.
10. How to Marry a 40ish Old Woman in 90 Days (2009)
Kotone Ohba is a 40 year old charismatic hairdresser who lives on the second floor of a high-rise condominium, has no boyfriend and is drunk every day. In a major advertising agency she meet a 23-year-old handsome salaryman Sho Hayasaka who falls in love with her. He confesses to her that he is “dating on the premise of marriage”, and a dream story full of encounters, farewells, and surprises begins.
9. Papadol! (2012)
This drama takes a whole new approach by making stars act under their real name and collaborating with other TBS television shows. The story revolves around a popular idol Ryo who secretly marries an older, single mom; Their marriage ahead will be rocky, but ryo is undeterred and sets about to win the acceptance of Haruka’s family and his fellow Kanjani8 members. It happens, however, that the manager of his musical group comes to discover the fact and puts Ryo in front of a choice of life that cannot be postponed: forcing him to choose between divorce or to be excluded from all television and musical activities.
8. Tengoku no Koi (2013)
Hanyu Itsuki, a 41 year-old housewife manages a secondhand bookshop, and living in a strained marriage with her 14 year-old daughter. There is no love between her and her husband, but they stay together solely for the sake of their daughter.
One day she catches a young man, Shida Motoharu, shoplift an erotic novel from their bookshop. The incident awakens in Ituski long forgotten passions. In the course of events, she ends up having an affair with the young man.
Shortly after, she bumps into another young man, Komota Ushio, and she starts an affair with him too but his resemblance to her first love reminded her of dark secrets from the past. Will Itsuki manage to manage these two passionate loves simultaneously?
7. Starman – This Star’s Love (2013)
Sawako was cowardly left by her husband and since then she has raised her three sons with the support of her mother. One day, she happens to meet a young man who suddenly appears before her. The young man suffers from amnesia. She falls in love with him at first sight. Taking advantage of his memory loss, she decides to make him live with her and passes him off as the father of her children. Sawako names him Hoshio and she hopes he never regains his memory and that nothing ever changes. The young man also begins to feel feelings for her. Whenever Sawako has troubles, Hoshio helps her out with his mysterious ability. But Hoshio’s mysterious past will resurface, A mystery that is finally revealed.
6. Last Cinderella (2013)
Sakura (Ryoko Shinohara) is a single 39-year-old woman. She is a hairdresser and salon assistant manager. She makes customers look pretty, but she doesn’t pay much attention to her own appearance. Scared of love, she hasn’t had a boyfriend or sex for 10 years. But all of that changes when One day She goes to a party invitation from Chiyoko Ogami, a regular at the salon, where she meets a much younger man Hiroto, 24-year old who is a biker, and is attracted to her. The two start dating, but what Sakura doesn’t know is that Hiroto is Chiyoko’s stepbrother, and that Chiyoko paid him to date her in order to keep her away from Rintaro, Sakura’s boss and good friend whom Chiyoko is obsessed with.
It’s a modern heart-thumping love comedy that’s sure to make you smile!
5. Hakuba no Oujisama Junai Tekireiki (2013)
High school teacher Hara Takako is 32 and has gone through failed relationships before. She is lonely and insecure. One day, a new teacher 25 years old Kotaro, is assigned to her all-girls school. He begins to have feelings for Kotaro, despite the 7 years gap in their ages, the two of them grow attracted to each other. But in truth, Kotaro has a fiancee. Add into that complicated love triangle, Takako’s ex-married lover, Kurosawa, and it all becomes one big pot of confusion.
~~ Based on manga series “Hakuba no Oujisama” by Yukizou Saku.
4. Platonic (2014)
Sara is a single mother with one daughter. Her daughter suffers from a heart disease and Sara desperately wants her daughter to get better, she need a heart of a donor. One day, a mysterious young man appears in front of Sara and tells her that he wants to save her daughter’s life. And thus, the mysterious young man enters single mother Sara’s life. Sara comes to love him. When she falls in love, it is time for the young man to die. Is that what fate has in store for Sara?
3. Uragiri no Machi (2016)
42-year-old Hashimoto Tomoko is an ordinary housewife with an uneventful life. One day, she meets Yuichi on a dating website a young man who is a part-time worker and has a girlfriend. They get involved in an intimate relationship, These two aren’t particular unhappy with their current partners. This is their escape from the never-ending emptiness of reality to fill the emotional void. However, an incident starts to sway Tomoko and Yuichi and what awaits them is an extremely cruel truth.
2. Kenja no Ai (2016)
A psychological drama about unhealthy interpersonal relationships explained often through elaborate flashbacks. Mayuko is forty-three-years old now and recalls a time thirty years ago living happily with her father and mother in a mansion near the beach. Blames her childhood best friend for everything that has gone wrong in her life. She has been having secret affair with Sawamura Naomi without the knowledge of his parents, While maintaining the façade of friendship, this relationship is only a form of revenge from Mayuko towards her former friend Naomi’s mother.
1. Kimi Wa Petto (2017)
29-year-old Sumire Iwaya works as an editor for a well known newspaper. She is attractive and graduated from a prestigious university.
She goes through a difficult period after being dumped by her boyfriend and getting demoted at work. One day, she returns to home drunk and finds a handsome young man lying in a cardboard box outside her apartment. Sumire mistakes the young man, 20-year-old Takeshi as her favorite dog Momo from when she was a child. The next day, Sumire jokingly suggests that she takes him as her pet and gives him the same name as Momo.
So begins a bizarre and beautiful relationship where they begin living together, and Sumire gradually starts to recover emotionally through her time with him.
