Laughing Matryoshka

Laughing Matryoshka (Japanese: 笑うマトリョーシカ) is a Japanese drama based on the novel written by Kazumasa Hayami, which was published by Bungeishunjū on November 5, 2021, scheduled to broadcast on TBS's "Friday Drama" slot starting June 28, 2024.

Synopsis
Toshiya Suzuki has known Ichiro Seike, a popular politician, since high school. Suzuki recognized that Seike had the potential to be a politician since then. And now, as his secretary, he is devoted to making Seike a prime minister. They look like a perfect match. But for reporter Kanae Michiue, something feels off about their relationship, including the fact that Suzuki's name is not revealed in Seike's autobiography, a mystery that seems to be related to the secretary's past. She begins to investigate them and notices the mysterious deaths surrounding Seike's rise in politics. Her own father's death is somehow connected.

Cast

 * Asami Mizukawa as Tōto Shinbun reporter Kanae Michiue
 * Sho Sakurai as Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Ichiro Seike
 * Yuzu Aoki as Seike (in University)
 * Tetsuji Tamayama Seike's former classmate, and current secretary, Toshiya Suzuki
 * Nishiyama Jun as Suzuki (in University)

Government people

 * Masei Nakayama as Kazunori Sakamoto, Seike's office secretary
 * Akira Otaka as Prime Minister Habu Masafumi
 * Kenichi Yajima as Ikuo Morohashi Minister of Foreign Affairs
 * Shigemitsu Ogi as Kazuhiro Takechi, representative from Ehime. Seike had been his private secretary, and replaced him when he died.
 * Tomiyuki Kunihiro as Norinaga Fujita, Takechi's former policy manager

Michiue's family

 * Mariko Tsutsui as Kaori Michiue, Michiue's mother, owner of Rinka Restaurant
 * Ikkei Watanabe as Kanetaka Michiue, Michiue's father
 * Masato Wada as Kentaro Hatade, Michiue's ex-husband
 * Yurito Mori as Yūki Hatade, Michiue and Hatade's son

Seike's family

 * Katō Masaya as Yoshitaka Wadajima, Seike's father (as revealed in Seike's autobiography), also a politician
 * Saki Takaoka as a mysterious woman. She is Seike's mother, Hiroko Seike
 * Kenjiro Nashimoto as Yoshikazu Seike, Hiroko Seike's ex-husband and Ichiro's stepfather

Suzuki's family

 * Tatsurō Kawano as Suzuki's father

Tōto Shinbun

 * Tomomi Maruyama as Takashi Yamanaka, a senior reporter
 * Ryōsuke Sota as Naoki Aoyama, a junior reporter

Seike's Uni era

 * Momoko Tanabe as "Mieko", Seike's University era girlfriend The name is a pseudonym used in Seike's book. She went by the name of Miwako Miyoshi in her school years, but her true name, Arisa Manaka, was revealed in a script she had written, which named her as author.
 * Dai Watanabe as Koichi Sasaki Suzuki and Seike's former classmate, and political supporter, chef and owner of the restaurant where Seike and Michiue meet to talk.
 * Noritaka Hamao as Sasaki (in University)
 * Toshihide Tonisaku as Kiyohiko Isshiki, Fukuin's principal

Other

 * Sakuya as Rinrin, part-time worker at Rinka
 * Sei Matobu introduced in episode 4 as a mysterious woman who gazes at the back of Michiue as she leaves the hospital where Suzuki is

Plot
As the drama opens, the newly inaugurated Cabinet's recently appointed Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Ichiro Seike, a young politician, candidate to be the next Prime Minister, gives a press conference Yoshitaka Wadajima, Chief Cabinet Secretary who gave a support speech when Seike first ran for office, was Seike's father, fact unknown for many years, until it was revealed in Seike's autobiography. They never lived together. Wadajima died of cancer the year before.

Tōto Shinbun reporter, Kanae Michue, went to Seike's hometown to learn more about this charismatic politician. Nothing seems to be as sunny as his disposition. When Michue goes to his alma-mater, she learns that Seike's image there is far from the reliable image he has today. She also learns about Toshiya Suzuki, his former mentor and current secretary. More surprising is Seike never mentions him in his autobiography. Another person of interest is Koichi Sasaki, Seike and Suzuki's former classmate. Sasaki is chairman of Seike's Supporters' Association. Chef by trade, following the footsteps of his father, he owns "Haruyoshi", a restaurant in his hometown of Matsuyama. However, it seems that there is more to the person than meets the eye.

Michiue's parents had divorced 5 years before. Michiue's mother, Kaori, runs the family restaurant. She is very supportive of her daughter, who struggles to balance work and family time. Michiue is also divorced. She and Kentaro Hatade separated after an incident from a scoop involved her family. They decided to divorce to protect their only child, an elementary school aged boy. Hatade has custody of their son, but is still in contact with Michiue.

Michiue had been distanced of her father, Kanetaka, for some time, when she receives a sudden call from him. Kanetaka was a reporter in the social affairs department of a major newspaper, where he had been investigating a bribery case, known as the "BG stock case". Time had passed since, and Kanetaka had retaken the story and asks Michiue for advice. While on the phone, Kanetaka is killed in a freak traffic accident. Michiue starts investigating a number of fatal accidents that seem related to Seike's rise to power. One of those may be her own father's recent death.

Michiue tries to talk to Suzuki regarding the BG case and the link to her father's death, to no avail. But when an opportunity to talk to Seike opens, she takes it, and confronts Suzuki in that interview. Later, Michiue receives a call from Seike. At their meeting, they talk about their lives. Michiue had received the (incomplete) belongings found in her late father's car, among which are some keys to a bank safe. The contents were some notebooks with information that her father had collected, which, shortly after Michiue took them to her house and examined them, were stolen. The notebooks had information about the BG case, in which Suzuki's father was allegedly involved. This makes Michiue's suspicions about Suzuki grow, and become strengthened by the words that Seike told her after their meeting: "From now on, keep your eyes on me too" (just like with her son). That made her believe Seike may have been manipulated by Suzuki, and that he was in danger. During one of their one-on-one meetings, Seike receives a call informing him that Suzuki had an accident, while Michiue learns that Aoyama, a junior colleague, was also in that incident. Both are in the hospital.

Michiue tries to gather more information, but is met with resistance from Seike's office, threatening to stop all meetings with him. Michiue noticed a strange similarity between Suzuki and so-called "Hitler Mentalist" Erik Jan Hanussen: besides having influence on their respective person, their ages coincided. Hanussen was 43 when he died, Suzuki was 43 at the time of what could have been a fatal accident. She continues examining information she has, that could reveal who the true Seike is, and if any of the incidents are related to Suzuki, Michiue thinks about "Mieko", Seike's girlfriend in university. Could she be involved? This makes her focus shift from Suzuki to "Mieko". At the same time, Suzuki, still in the hospital, reminisces about "Mieko" and how she became a crutch in Seike's road into politics.

Michiue continues prodding into the "Mieko mystery". She discovers from a former Seike classmate, and confirms from Fujita, Takechi's former policy manager, that the woman's name is Miwako Miyoshi, and that her dream was to be a screenwriter. The classmate also tells her that Miwako applied for a competition with a script modeled after Seike, called "The Last Laughing Matryoshka", details of which Miwako had told Suzuki. Michiue goes to the University where Miwako is supposed to have studied in, only to learn that no one under that name registered there. Michiue then goes to Suzuki and, with his help, gets ahold of the script, only to find out that instead of Miwako being the author, it is "Arisa Manaka", prompting Michiue to think it could be a false name.

With her sights set in the Seike/Mieko case, Michiue's journalistic work begins to falter, forcing the newspaper to pressure her, so she quits to become a freelance journalist and concentrate on her task. Seike calls her and, in the few moments they have alone, he tells her he will not contact her again, that he is doing it for her sake, that as she is watching out for him, so is he watching out for her. As he is driven away, he turns to see a still wondering Michiue standing on the sidewalk.

Michiue goes to Miwako/Manaka's family home and learns important facts about her. With all the information that Michiue has shared with Suzuki, he starts having flashbacks to when he and Seike were in uni. About him and Seike, them and Miwako... and of them and Hiroko, Seike's mother, a mysterious (and probably dangerous) person that Michiue saw at her mother's restaurant, and that Suzuki has hidden the fact that he knows her.

Music
Theme song, "Sunshade", lyrics by singer-songwriter Yuuka (singer-songwriter) and music by One Ok Rock's Toru, is sung by its lyricist.