Best Japanese Romance Dramas

When she's not at her fancy job, Hotaru just wants to relax at home - until her landlord's son shows up, and it's none other than her fastidious boss.

Unlucky in love office lady Riiko Izawa is ready to give up on relationships when a mysterious man who offers her the perfect boyfriend.

39-yo Sakura Toyama is a hairdresser and salon assistant manager, who is concerned by her stagnant life. She decides to at least do something about her love life. She accepts a party invitation from Chiyoko Ogami and confusion develops.

A dejected woman finds an unconscious man resembling her former dog and takes him in as a "pet", forming an unexpected bond as they overcome obstacles together, raising the question of whether such love can exist.

After her parents die, Mei discovers that she is the heir to a rich and powerful family; she must leave her humble surroundings to attend a new school and work with her new butler, who wants to do everything for her.

Makino Tsukushi is an ordinary student at Eitoku Gakuen, a school for the ridiculously rich and privileged which is ruled by the Flower 4, or otherwise known as the F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families.

An ordinary senior high school girl named Mika meets Hiro, a showy boy with dyed hair and pierced ears. It is a "pure love" story of the two going through many unimaginably sad incidents while nurturing their love single-mindedly.

Toji, a manager of a food section in a medium-sized department store, has to put up with a tough boss that makes every day a real struggle. But things start to look up for him though when he meets a pretty elevator girl named Nao who is. Just as he is starting to enjoy a new-found happiness at work, a new account manager from an advertising agency visits Toji's division, and it is none other than Toji's ex-girlfriend from university, Makoto. Toji is surprised to see her again but Makoto treats him as if she has never met him before. Now dealing with a tough job and caught in the middle of a jealous Nao and Makoto who dumped him, things couldn't get much worse for Toji.

Naoko Noda, who works in a trading company, is called "anego" by her younger co-workers. What is "anego"? It means "older sister," but in this case it is given as a nickname to Naoko because she is like a big sister to her coworkers, who depend on her to give them advice about everything. This drama depicts realistically how Naoko lives her everyday life, including her love life, the problems she faces, and her uneasiness about the future.

One boy kills his father to save his first love. One girl takes the life of her mother to protect the boy. The two commit a crime to hide another, and move on with life, turning their backs against the sun.

Tatsuya, a tormented college student who was once an all-around nice guy but now seems to be balancing a gigantic grudge on his shoulder. For some reason, he has taken to hanging around with the richest kid in school, basically a trusting, nice guy who Tatsuya is out to destroy. He feels an uncontrollable urge to deface the rich kid's new car and chase after his fiance. Complicating the plot further is Tatsuya's run-in with a young composer and pianist, who has a limp sustained in a car accident many years before. She, too, is rich, although Tatsuya does not know it yet. Stuck in a stifling home environment with her pianist mother who disdains her desire to compose, the obedient young woman begins to change after a chance meeting with Tatsuya, while he seems to regain some of his humanity in his interaction with her.

Irie is an unhappy bullied kid. His life starts getting better as his father gets remarried and her daughter moves in.

A group of friends do their best to handle life's daily struggles. Two of them, an ambitious musician and a struggling model, are drawn to each other.

Nanako, determined to marry rich after poverty, is dubbed the "gokon queen". Shinichi, a brilliant academic turned fishmonger, misleads her into believing he's wealthy when they meet at a group date, leading Nanako to fall for him.

Haruhi Fujioka stumbles by accident into the school's "host club" which consists of six handsome male students. The six male members of the host club make Haruhi join them - not realizing that Haruhi is actually a girl.

Last Friends tackles issues that afflict the current generation. Michiru's mother has brought a man back to their home and she is bullied at her workplace where she works as a beauty pearlier assistant. She starts cohabiting with her boyfriend, a good young man who works at the Child Welfare Division and the only person who can give her emotional support, but ends up the victim of domestic violence and becomes fearful of love. The boyishly charming Ruka was a classmate of Michiru's in junior high school. She has performed brilliantly as a motocross racer and aims to win the national championship, but as the story progresses, a deep worry that she can neither confide in her parents or close friends grows evident. Takeru is a hair and makeup artist acquainted with Ruka. He is a good confidant to females due to his kindness and perceptiveness, and finds himself attracted to Ruka but has a phobia of sex as a result of a past trauma. The three of them become house mates and through their associations with others, gain the capacity to be positive about life.

A love story of Masaki, a 17-years-old girl, who contracted HIV after selling her body in order to earn money for the concert ticket and Ishikawa Keigo, a famous composer who she is a big fan of and whose concert it was.

Chisato is homeless and on the run from debt collectors, when a wealthy man offers to pay off her debt if she marries him for one month. However, Chisato discovers that there are clauses to the contract after he dies, which includes being the mother of his six sons.

While working at a seaside inn with his high school buddies, Fujishiro Koji meets Kaoru Amane, a street musician. Kaoru is suffering from an incurable disease called XP (xeroderma pigmentosum), and can't be exposed to the sun. Under the sun, the two would never have met. Still, destiny brings the two together. Since the day he suddenly lost his job, Koji has lost sight of his dreams. But when he meets Kaoru,who is making positive efforts to become a singer, Koji regains his long-forgotten passion for music.

Takakura So witnessed his father's murder at a young age. Pledging to catch the killer, he grows up to become an elite cop in New York City, where the criminal lives. His character is cool-headed and disciplined, yet adapts well. Because of major drug dealings, he gets sent to Tokyo to conduct a joint investigation with the Japanese police. There, he gets teamed up with, Kudo Maruo, a detective from a special investigative division. Kudo is a hot-blooded fighting expert due to his earlier days as a delinquent, but he makes a strong impression with his stylish appearance and is always interested in going on group dates. His personality, interests, and investigation methods are completely mismatched with Takakura's, but the two somehow work together to crack the case they've been given.

Love Generation revolves around the relationship of the two leading protagonists, Katagiri Teppei and Uesugi Riko, who begin their relationship as squabbling colleagues before falling in love.

Onizuka, a former delinquent finds himself in the role of a high school teacher, facing students who behave just as he used to. Using unusual methods, he manages to reach through to his students and help them with their problems.