Kanojo-tachi no Yoake (2025) Radio Drama

Chihiro, a 35-year-old lesbian woman living in Aomori, always harbored feelings towards her friend Sawako, with whom she lost touch over the years. After a period of eight years of no contact, Sawako returns to Aomori. The two reconnect as if no time had passed whatsover, spending irreplacable moments together.

This drama is set in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, which is part of the Tsugaru region (Western region of Aomori Prefecture). In the drama, you can hear spoken Tsugaru dialect (especially by Shougo), and Nanbu dialect.

Cast:

• Sasaki Shiho as Ohsawa Chihiro
• Shimizu Hazuki as Yamamoto Sawako
• Kudou Chinatsu as Ohsawa Ryouko
• Ikuta Shunpei as Ohsawa Shougo
• Wada Hanako as Takano Fumi
• Yamada Momoji as Sanjou Daisuke

The characters' names actually bear some very popular names in Aomori, so good selection on their part.

Crew:

• Executive producer: Ikawa Seiichi
• Technical production: Tada Chihiro
• Sound effects: Inoue Naomi
• Advisor for Aomori dialects: Kudou Akane
• Gender and sexuality consultants: Nakamura Kasumi, Wakabayashi Yuuma
• Direction: Ishina You
• Script: Yamada Yuri

Yamada Yuri (whose work you might recognize from tsukutabe) was actually approached by the director Ishina-san to write this drama. After doing research about LGBTQIA+ community in Aomori, they were saddened to hear how much the community goes through in rural areas, and so this radio drama came to life.

Actual queer people worked on this radio drama, such as Nakamura Kasumi (who's lesbian and quoiromantic) and Wakabayashi Yuuma (who's a transgender man).

Here's an introductory segment from a variety show in which Yamada Yuri talks about the radio drama. You can watch this before watching the radio drama since there are no major spoilers, but watching it afterwards is fine, too.

This drama wasn't easy to sub at all, and of course, I'm earsubbing as usual, so yeah, there may be errors (probably the two lines I can't hear well). If you're learning Japanese, I've put in some translation notes about Tsugaru dialect, so you might find it useful.

Hope this radio drama warms your heart a little, especially considering how much queer content from Japan lately has been meaningless and produced for cheap entertainment. I mean it's nice that such content exists and people can feel joy from it and it helps them, but it'd be nice if there was balance at least. Don't worry, I'll still be here doing meaningful stuff as long as I'm alive.

Anyway, I hope you'll love this radio drama as much as I did! Another radio drama that I loved will be coming soon!