Japan‘s ’Squid Game’?

Japan is still waiting for its Squid Game.

Despite having more than twice the population, and being more than three times richer than Asian neighbour South Korea, the Japanese TV industry has yet to produce a high-end TV drama that travels far beyond its borders. While Japanese cinema continues to be admired —see the Oscar success of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car — few small-screen shows make it off the island.

Elpis. The investigative crime thriller takes on two very Japanese subjects: the experiences of female reporters in Japan’s male-dominated newsrooms, and a series of real-life false conviction scandals that shook the country. The plot, inspired by real events, follows Ena Asakawa (Masami Nagasawa), a TV journalist who investigates a national conspiracy involving police forcing confessions to close open murder cases.

The event series, which premieres Monday, Oct. 24 on Kansai TV in Japan, has global ambitions. Nagasawa’s Elpis co-star is Drive My Car breakout Toko Miura, and the series had its world premiere at international TV market MIPCOM last week, the first Japanese show to do so….