When NHK premiered the local version of Ukrainian detective drama The Sniffer at the end of October on its flagship national terrestrial channel’s prime-time schedule, the conservative Japanese public broadcaster made history on a few fronts.

Firstly, and most significantly, the series is the first time NHK has ventured into foreign drama adaptations. The Sniffer follows the acquisition of all3media factual formats Undercover Boss and Gogglebox, both firsts of their kind in Japan.

The Japanese version of The Sniffer, shot in 4K, is also the first international adaptation to go to air of Film.UA’s 16-episode 2013 drama series. Film.UA says the original has been licensed to more than 60 countries, including Japan.

While NHK has long been an active co-production partner in high-end factual programmes around the world, the latest rights acquisitions are seen as part of a new era of the broadcaster’s involvement with the international market.

The Japanese adaptation of The Sniffer follows “sniffer” Shinichiro Hanaoka (played by popular local actor Hiroshi Abe) and detective sidekick Tatsuro Komukai (played by Teruyuki Kagawa) as they solve crimes using Honaoka’s enhanced sense of smell.

Director Kentaro Horikirizono says The Sniffer’s selling point was the “genuinely original concept of solving crimes using a person’s sense of smell” and the on-trend mix of screen partners in the best traditions of Sherlock, The Mentalist and CSI.

While the crime at the centre of the story line remains the same, the Japanese series delves much deeper into the motive, producer TomoakiIso says. Fans of the genre in Japan “are not satisfied if they aren’t able to understand why these crimes are committed,” he adds.

The lead character remains true to the original, but his sidekick has been stripped of the ladies-man qualities in favour of a single, gawkish, clumsy guy still living with his mother and looking for a wife. Iso says this makes him more relatable to Japanese audiences.

The Japanese version also stepped up the pace, weaving humour through the suspense with an “emotionally touching drama” injected into each 44-minute episode, Horikirizono says.

Horikirizono adds that his challenge was to adjust the balance of plot and emotion, injecting more emphasis on plot to balance out the more-common Japanese focus on emotion.

“In many foreign dramas, the most important element is the plot. In Japanese drama the emotion is considered to be most important... we wanted to change the balance from the usual Japanese emphasis on emotion to more of the plot. But it still has to work for the Japanese audience,” he says.

Another of the challenges involved in translating the series for Japan is that many of the original stories relate to the military or the police. “Our systems are different,” Horikirizono says.

The Sniffer’s run in Japan marks a turning point that Horikirizono embarked upon during his first Seoul Drama Awards judging in 2014, when he first realised the potential of scripted formats. “Japan is a self-contained market,” he says. “It’s not that we don’t pay attention, we just have less opportunity to know about projects outside of Japan”. That is, clearly, all about to change.

Published on ContentAsia's Issue Six 2016