Hearing from the Producers: The Drama "Male Copywriter Takes Paternity Leave."

The essay "Male Copywriter Takes Paternity Leave, " written by Yohei Uogeri and serialized in Web Dentsu Inc. from 2017 to 2018, was published as a book under the same title in 2019. This summer, it has been adapted into a drama for WOWOW. Seto Koji will play the protagonist, "Uogeri Yosuke."

This June, coinciding with the passage of amendments to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act in the Diet, the drama focuses on the hot topic of "company employees taking childcare leave." The script is written by Toru Hosokawa, known for the film "Mr. Hikita! You're Pregnant!" We spoke with scriptwriter Hosokawa and WOWOW producer Masatoshi Iguchi, who spearheaded this drama project, about the behind-the-scenes stories and production secrets. The interviewer is the original author, Uogeri.
Note: At the time of this roundtable (June 1, 2021), neither Mr. Hosokawa nor Mr. Uogeri had seen any footage of the drama.

◆WOWOW Original Drama " Male Copywriter Takes Paternity Leave. "
(All episodes available on WOWOW On Demand starting Friday, July 9th / Broadcast begins on WOWOW Prime)

 

The impetus for the drama adaptation was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Uogeri: Since "Male Copywriter Takes Paternity Leave" was originally serialized in Web Dentsu Inc., today's talk feels a bit like "We're back at Web Dentsu Inc.!" which is quite moving.

I hear the idea for this drama project came from producer Iguchi-san. Had you been reading Web Dentsu Inc. articles for a while?

Iguchi: I read it regularly. Partly because I've always been interested in the advertising industry, but also because Web Dentsu-tsushin gives me the impression of capturing the cutting edge of the times. While I'm in the position of making dramas, I also check it often to keep my antennae tuned to the world. That's why I read Mr. Uogeri's column every time it was serialized.

Uogeri: Did you already have the idea of turning it into a drama at that point?

Iguchi: No, I was just reading it thinking, "This is interesting content."

Back then, my son had just been born, but because of overlapping drama shoots, I ended up leaving most of the childcare to my wife. So, rather than really relating to the content, it was more like one of those enjoyable reads I'd pick up during work breaks.

Ugaeshi: So what made you decide to turn it into a drama project?

Iguchi: The shift in my work style during last year's COVID lockdown period was a major factor. Realizing I hadn't been properly engaged with childcare back then was a significant turning point.

I hadn't been able to dedicate much time to childcare, so the kind of childcare leave Ugaeshi-san wrote about in the column felt like a distant concept to me back when I was reading the serialization. Taking childcare leave myself? I couldn't even begin to imagine it as something that applied to me.

But during the lockdown, I basically worked remotely, and daycare closed. I inevitably spent more time alone with my child. For instance, I often took my child to the park on the back of my bike, and I started researching things like, "How should I pedal to make it easier for my child to nap?"

When I got it just right, it felt amazing. And that feeling was something new, completely different in quality from the satisfaction I got from work. I guess I realized, "So this is what that kind of happiness feels like." That moment of noticing that feeling was the starting point, when I began to think, "Maybe not taking paternity leave was a real missed opportunity."

Uogeri: This essay was written before anyone could have predicted COVID, yet the pandemic became the catalyst for its adaptation into a drama. That's fascinating.

Iguchi: I imagine many people experienced a change in their distance from family during the pandemic. So I wondered if others in my generation, working people like me, might have also experienced a shift in values similar to what I felt.

Uogeri: I see. The original story is set in 2017, but I wondered if the drama, though not explicitly stated, was set in the present day without the pandemic.

Iguchi: Yes. It's set in 2021, without COVID. I wanted to depict the thoughts about children and family that COVID sparked in me, but I decided against setting it directly during the pandemic. I wanted to try a different approach. By deliberately setting it in a world without the premise of COVID, I hoped we could still find universal insights.

I thought this essay was completely unsuitable for a drama.

Uogeri: It might sound odd coming from me as the original author, but I thought this essay about parental leave was completely undramatic—the least suited material for adaptation. So I was surprised when I first heard about the drama offer. Did you have confidence it could work as a drama, Mr. Iguchi?

Iguchi: To be honest, "I can do it!" might not be quite right. "I want to take on the challenge" probably fits better.

You know that part near the end of your original work where they go to the sea? The scene where they go on a family trip, and when they try to show the ocean to their daughter, she's already asleep. That moment, and then the line, "If someday, when life ends, a digest movie called a life flashback plays, some of the moments featured might be nominated from this past half-year" – those were incredibly moving and left a deep impression on me.

Uogeri: Hearing you say it again, that is a bit of an exaggerated expression (laughs).

Iguchi: But you know, I felt like this line really captured something I'd been vaguely sensing during my own period of self-restraint.

The starting point was wanting to create a story that culminates in that final scene. Then, we worked together with scriptwriter Hosokawa and others, discussing what form would make it work as a drama.

Hosokawa: That's right. When I first got the script request, I thought it would be tough if it was just another drama about parental leave. But when I read the original work, even though Uogeri-san said it wasn't "dramatic," I actually thought it was quite dramatic. It carefully weaves together the small shifts in feelings that can happen when raising a child. I could see the picture forming, leading up to that final scene by the sea.

Uogeri: Really!? That makes me happy.

Hosokawa: Not just this scene, but there are so many places where I find Mr. Uogeri's expressions fascinating. Like using a pie chart to show the challenges of childcare. Or likening nipples to terminals (※1) (laughs). It's sprinkled with expressions you wouldn't find in a typical parenting essay, and I remember having this feeling that we could make it something interesting, not just serious.

Iguchi: This drama is structured as 15-minute episodes over 12 episodes. Personally, I really wanted working people to watch it. When I thought about what kind of situation would make them watch, I imagined them on a commuter train. Even on a commuter train, people don't spend the entire time watching videos. Considering they'd probably also be checking social media, I thought 15 minutes was the perfect length, so I pitched it that way. When I presented it to Mr. Hosokawa, he gave it his seal of approval, saying, "A 15-minute format is interesting."

Uogeri: What was the deciding factor in asking Mr. Hosokawa to write the script?

Iguchi: While thinking about what kind of style would be best for the script and direction of this project, I happened to see the movie "Mr. Hikita! You're Pregnant!" (※2) airing on WOWOW. That was the deciding factor. It's a film starring Yutaka Matsushige and Keiko Kitagawa about trying to conceive. Mr. Hosokawa directed it, and the balance between the comedic parts and the sincere approach to the theme was superb. It genuinely made you laugh and genuinely made you cry.

Uogeri: I get it! I thought the same thing—fertility treatment is such a sensitive topic, yet he managed to make comedy work like this.

Hosokawa: In terms of sensitivity, it shares common ground with parental leave dramas. But I wanted to preserve as much of the original's humor as possible. I didn't want it to feel like a lecture; I aimed early on for something entertaining that might subtly suggest, "Maybe it's not so bad for men to take parental leave."

That said, parental leave affects more people and involves more parties than fertility treatment, so we needed to be extra careful. In that sense, balancing the comedy and seriousness was indeed difficult.

But being able to write the script while maintaining that balance this time might have been largely thanks to my experience working on "Mr. Hikita!".

 How does it look to people outside the "company employee" world?

Uogeri: By the way, the "childcare leave" system I used is for company employees (※3), and the original work also captures the reality of being a company employee. But I wanted to ask how it felt when seen, say, from someone like Hosokawa-san who isn't a company employee. Setting aside time for childcare itself isn't unique to company employees.

Hosokawa: Honestly, I wondered if taking half a year off wouldn't make you nervous... When my child was born, I happened to have some leeway at work and could care for them full-time for about two months. That hasn't fundamentally changed now. There are times I can't be there due to filming or rehearsals, but when I'm working from home, looking after my child is just a given.

But if I were a company employee, saying "I want to take time off" would take a lot of courage. If everyone around you was taking childcare leave, it might be easier to say, but in an environment where that's not the case, it would definitely be hard to bring up. Reflecting that feeling in the drama was something I had to imagine.

Uogeri: In the original work, that hurdle is completely cleared without any trouble, right?

Hosokawa: When adapting it for drama, we needed to elicit broad empathy. Since many companies still have hurdles for men taking paternity leave, we adjusted it slightly.

Uogeri: That's the part where the protagonist agonizes over how to convince his boss, right? This drama strikes an interesting balance between the unusual and the ordinary, doesn't it? Advertising agencies have this inherently unique image, and they're often used as material in dramas. But I hoped that while people in the industry might watch and think, "Oh, they're exaggerating again, ha ha ha..." there would also be moments where they'd think, "This part feels pretty realistic." That's why, yes, I ended up chiming in a lot about the training scenes (※4). Sorry about that (laughs).

Hosokawa: Not at all. I'm glad you pointed it out. Training is something you really can't grasp from the outside, so I was writing based on my own imagination at first. But it was also an area where I really wanted Mr. Uogeri's input, so your feedback was incredibly helpful!

A set where the staff's parenting experience really came through!

Uogeri: Seto Koji-san plays "Uogeri" in the drama. Was the casting decided while you were still writing the script, Hosokawa-san?

Iguchi: I believe we made the offer while you were writing the first or second episode. I heard he personally had a desire to play a father role that suited his age. For us, it was more about wanting to see a new side of Seto-san in a visual work, which is why we made the offer. He seemed to find the project's angle and the character interesting, and that's how he agreed to it.

Hosokawa: Even after Mr. Seto was cast, I didn't really write the script with his image in mind. Since I wasn't directing this time, I approached the script purely as a script. Mr. Uogeri, how did you feel when you heard Mr. Seto would be playing your role?

Uogeri: Since he's what you'd call a "second lead" type, I was honestly shocked at first and felt a bit embarrassed. I thought he was way too cool (laughs).

Hosokawa: Yeah, that would be embarrassing (laughs).

Uogeri: I wanted people around me to tease me about it, but maybe they were being considerate of the actual distance between me and Seto-san, because nobody said anything. So I ended up saying things like "I've been reincarnated in another world" myself (laughs).

Conversely, with Kumi Takiuchi, who plays my wife, it wasn't so much her appearance as her overall vibe that felt closest to a wife.

Iguchi: When I interviewed Ugaeshi-san before, the impression I got from the wife he described was of a pretty straightforward woman. That became a keyword for me, and it led me to Takii-san.

Uogeri: The original work didn't describe my wife in detail, so I asked Hosokawa-san many questions about her too. Hosokawa-san, it felt like you were creating the protagonist's "wife" almost from scratch. How did you solidify that image?

Hosokawa: After creating Mr. Ugaeri first, I built her by imagining how she would act in certain situations.
I wanted both Uogeri and the wife to be likable characters. When I first met Uogeri, I tried to find a weakness in him by asking questions, but I couldn't really find any.

Uogeri: No, that's not true at all (laughs).

Hosokawa: I later learned about her absent-minded side, like forgetting her wallet when she goes out. So I reflected that, aiming to make her properly, just the right amount of flawed (laughs).

Uogeri: I really like the Uogeri "Aiko" (※5) that Takiuchi-san plays.

Iguchi: Takii-san was wonderful too.

Uogeri: Director Yamaguchi Junta-san (※6) was involved from the script meetings this time, right?

Iguchi: That's right. I heard Mr. Yamaguchi had just become a father himself.

Hosokawa: When I heard they were considering asking Yamaguchi-san to direct, the only thing I asked was whether he had children. Parenting involves so many quiet but demanding tasks, right? I thought that without experiencing many of those small, real-life moments, it might be difficult to express them in a way that truly resonates with people.

Iguchi: This was actually an idea from Producer Nakazawa at Tohoku Shinsha, who worked with us this time. Beyond the director, we consciously reached out to include many staff members who have personal experience with childcare.

Uogeri: So as we were filming, all these memories and real feelings about parenting from different people might have built up in the finer details!

Iguchi: Exactly! There was a time on set when Seto-san was unsure how to change a diaper, and everyone wanted to say, "No, not like that, do it like this!" (laughs).

I guess anyone who's had even a little experience with childcare just wants to chime in. I think it's partly nostalgia too.

Uogeri: Speaking of which, when I briefly visited the set, I saw that kind of interaction too. It was during the hospital birth scene, and the staff were debating, "Shouldn't visitors to the maternity ward wear masks regardless of COVID?" and "No, maybe they don't have to?" That was really interesting (laughs).

Iguchi: For that scene, during pre-production, the director mentioned that since the wife in the hospital wouldn't be wearing makeup, maybe not many husbands would come swarming in for visits. So we changed the script based on that. It really made me appreciate how the set was such a warm, friendly place where all sorts of staff members would chip in with little ideas like, "Actually, maybe it's more like this?"

What are the scriptwriter & producer's recommended highlights?

Uogeri: While you two were making the drama, were there any scenes or lines that resonated with your own parenting experiences?

Hosokawa: I was really putting in the effort with childcare, just like in the drama. But I hit my limit first. I remember saying something like, "This is my limit..." and I think it led to an argument.

Uogeri: Ah, that line was in the script! (laughs) It wasn't in the original work, but it was really memorable.

Hosokawa: Parts we added as originals do reflect my own experiences and feelings at the time.
Like how I had zero interest in babies before mine was born, but the moment he arrived, I became completely doting and started rambling about baby poop—that was my experience too.

Ugawari: So you disliked children too, Hosokawa-san? (laughs)

Hosokawa: But since it's fundamentally based on Uogeri-san's original work, I was really careful not to make Uogeri-san's child feel sad when they saw it.
In reality, after having children, you love them intensely. To make this work as a comedy drama, we decided to have the protagonist's attitude snap instantly the moment the baby is born.

Iguchi: In the drama, the protagonist Uogeri takes paternity leave on a whim. He's portrayed as completely hopeless at first, but from my perspective, just taking paternity leave is impressive.

The way he commits to childcare—well, from my perspective, it feels like he starts from a really strong place. I didn't really relate to him personally.

But the part I related to most was when he hits his limit at night and just has to go out for ramen (laughs). That scene actually resonated with a surprising number of people.

Uogeri: I see. The protagonist's motivation for taking paternity leave is even less pure than mine, and he's pretty naive (laughs). But conversely, he's also very honest. He can openly admit his weaknesses and show his love for his wife without hesitation, right? I think that's wonderful.

Hosokawa: Really? But reading that essay, I felt like a lot was implied without being said outright. I think the script just makes those feelings clearer through dialogue.

Uogeri: It's a bit of a strange feeling. Reading the script, I also got the sense I was seeing another case of paternity leave, like from a colleague or junior.

There are so many more things I'd love to ask you about, but it's almost time to wrap up. Could you tell us the highlights of this work?

Hosokawa: When you think of a drama about parental leave, it might seem like a narrow range of scenes—staying home with the child, doing housework. But this adaptation includes Uogeri-san's imaginative elements and metaphors from the original work, so it's a visually engaging parental leave drama. Since I was in charge of the script this time, I took advantage of not being the director and wrote whatever I wanted (laughs). How director Yamaguchi Junta brought that to life is definitely a highlight.

Iguchi: It turned out surprisingly well.

When writing the script with Hosokawa-san, he often said, "Since it's a late-night Friday drama, I want it to be something you can watch and then sleep soundly after." During production, I was more focused on the story development and such. But now, sitting in on the editing and seeing the finished product take shape, I finally understand what Hosokawa-san meant.

When tackling the theme of childcare leave, it's easy to fall into textbook-like imagery or the struggles of a hands-on dad, creating a sense of déjà vu. But this drama has both humor and human drama, leaving you with a happy feeling after watching.

I really hope couples, lovers, or anyone watching with someone they care about will see it together.

Uogawari: I haven't seen the footage beyond the script either, so I'm looking forward to it. I'd be thrilled if everyone reading this enjoys it too. Thank you for today.

◆WOWOW Original Drama " Male Copywriter Takes Paternity Leave"
(All episodes available on WOWOW On Demand starting Friday, July 9th / Broadcast begins on WOWOW Prime)
 

※1
Refer to the second installment of Web Dentsu Inc., " Breasts, Poop, and Parental Leave," and Chapter 2 of the book. The timetable depicted as a "kaban table" in the former is expressed as a circle in the latter (first edition).
 

※2
The film "Mr. Hikita! You're Pregnant!" is based on an essay by Kunio Hikita. Tetsu Hosokawa wrote the screenplay and directed the film, which was released in 2019.
 

※3
To be precise, it is a system based on the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act for all "employees."
 

※4
The scene from Episode 1 of the drama featuring copywriting training for new employees. This refers to Mr. Uogeri commenting on the actual training after reading the script.
 

※5
In the drama, the protagonist's wife's name is "Aiko," but like the protagonist, this differs from the name of his real-life wife.
 

※6
Director Junta Yamaguchi is a film director and video director affiliated with "Europe Project." His 2020 film "At the End of Droste," which he directed, was highly acclaimed both domestically and internationally, winning numerous awards at festivals including the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and Brazil's Fantaspoa Film Festival.