Yasuko Sawaguchi’s Kasouken no Onna Retirement Looms Despite Calls to Stay Mariko

On July 3, the latest installment of the popular TV Asahi drama series Kasouken no Onna, starring actress Yasuko Sawaguchi (59), began. The series, which started in October 1999, is set at the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s Forensic Science Laboratory. It follows forensic researcher Mariko Sakaki (played by Sawaguchi) and her team as they use DNA analysis and image processing to solve increasingly violent and high-tech crimes. 

 

Kasouken no Onna was previously broadcast in the long-standing Thursday 8:00 PM Thursday Mystery slot on the same network. Following the cancellation of that slot, the series moved to the newly established Tuesday 9:00 PM slot. It now airs in the Wednesday 9:00 PM slot, which also features other popular series like Aibou and Special Investigation Nine.

 

However, the first episode of the new season, broadcast on July 3, recorded an average household rating of 7.8% (according to Video Research, Kanto region), marking the lowest debut rating in the series’ history. The second episode on July 10 garnered a rating of 8.1%, and the third episode on July 17 saw a rating of 8.8%, showing an upward trend, but it has not achieved double-digit ratings since the October 2022 debut of Season 22 (up until the July 17 broadcast this year).

 

“A general decline in TV viewership ratings is affecting all networks, and this show is clearly caught in that trend. The main viewer demographic has always been people in their 50s and older, and the core ratings targeted at the 13 to 49 age group, which networks have been focusing on recently, are not expected to improve. The series has been running for so long that the mystery-solving elements in the story are starting to run out, leading to viewer fatigue.” (broadcasting reporter)

Interestingly, the decline in ratings for the series began around the time of the release of its first feature film, Kasouken no Onna, which came out in September 2021. Following the film’s release, Season 21 aired from October 2021 over two six-month periods, with a total of 18 episodes. The average rating for the entire season was 9.6%, marking the first time that the average rating for all episodes fell into the single digits.