Starring
Kato Rosa as Tachibana Ayaka
Matsuda Shota as Date Naoto
Sakai Ayana as Hojou Rina
Maeda Ai as Miki
Saito Shota as Sugino Kenichi
Ihara Tsuyoshi as Onoue Yuichiro
Katase Rino as Fujimura Sawa
Nakajima Tomoko as Fujimoto Mina
Toyohara Kosuke as Osawa Kengo
Fukikoshi Mitsuru as Koda
Ozawa Maju as Reiko
Kato Kazuko as Tachibana Mariko
Izumiya Shigeru as Minomura Tatsukichi
Morimoto Leo as Hojou Terumori
Hayami Mokomichi as Shiratori Takuya

Jotei (translating into ‘Empress’) is a Japanese drama that aired in the summer of 2007. It was broadcast by TV Asahi on Fridays nights at 11:00. There were 10 episodes and averaged ratings of 11.6%. The theme song is Kanata by Nanamusica.

Jotei starts off set in the high school of Tachibana Ayaka. She is the student council president and Sugino Kenichi, her admirer, is vice-president. He is the only son of a rich and powerful family. Hojou Rina is the daughter of a well known politician. Since Kenichi aims to be a politician, the Sugino and Hojou family have matched up their son and daughter to be married. Rina lets Ayaka know this and reminds her that as a daughter of a poor Snack shop-owner, she is no match for Kenichi. However, this is no indication that Ayaka is interested in Kenichi.

Ayaka’s mother is being threatened to sell her Snack shop and is terminally ill, something she had been hiding from her daughter. After a particular traumatizing experience, her mother is hospitalized and shortly after passes away. Ayaka has never known who her father is, but at her mother’s death bed, she is told that he is still alive. Ayaka quits school and moves to Osaka to work as a hostess. She is determined to become the Empress (Jotei) of the night world to take revenge on powerful people who had taken advantage of their positions. But the road to become an empress is not easy and there are those who don’t want their high status to be taken away.

In Osaka, she meets Date Naoto and the two become friends. However, the club’s mama (the owner) warns Ayaka that she fears that he is yakuza trying to take advantage of her. When Ayaka confronts Naoto about this, he tries to rape her, but she struggles and shouts that she aims to become the empress of the night world. Surprisingly, he stops his advances and decides that he will support her goal. He tells her that he wants to become a yakuza boss. The two form an alliance.

The drama chronicles her life as a hostess and trying to get to the top. She must secure the richest and most powerful men as her regular customers in the club. She later moves to Ginza, Tokyo because one cannot truly be an Empress of the night world if they are not well known in Ginza. But in Ginza, the powerful men of that world include Kenichi’s boss, Onoue Yuichiro, and Rina’s father. And Rina doesn’t want Ayaka to become an Empress and tries to hinder her by any means.

Though the beginning was a little slow, I became interested by the end of the first episode. Although, I suppose the introduction to Ayaka’s background was necessary to show her determination to become someone with power. The two leads Kato Rosa and Matsuda Shota were both excellent in their roles, though Kato started off a little slow. And Matsuda Shota’s overly long hair bothered me at times.

Sometimes I feel sorry for Sakai Ayana, because she has to play the part of an absolute bitch (and often the antagonist in several dramas). And her character of Hojou Rina is rather one-dimensional, as are some of the other ‘villains’ in Jotei. Rina doesn’t seem to have any real drive behind her motive. Why does she do what she does? Because she hates Ayaka? It’s too shallow of a reason for me to swallow sometimes.

Something I found a little hard to believe was how dramatic the hostesses would act when their lives were ‘ruined’ because they fell from the top. And how all the club mama’s were so kind to Ayaka - why? Can the bosses really be that gracious and considerate all the time?

I did like how the writers showed a distinct difference with all the hostesses when they were working to when they were getting ready or leaving. All the fighting and arguments were done in the back room while getting ready or when the club was empty after a night of working. It really showed how luxurious everything was when the club was open, but after the night was over, there was basically no one they could rely on in the club.

The finale disappointed me a bit. Some of the events that happened felt out of character and were just done for the sake of wrapping up a storyline in a pretty like package. Like the series was going in one direction and suddenly, the line became skewed in the last episode.

Jotei has very little fluff and comedy in it. A bit dark and tragic, perhaps it really does portray life in Tokyo night life. It was also interesting to see how different people used their power and status. I enjoyed the series, but thought the finale didn’t measure up to the rest of it.

Buy the boxset: Japan Version