OSAKA: Japan celebrated on Monday the record-breaking Emmy Awards triumph of "Shogun", although many confessed not having watched the series about the country's warring dynasties in the feudal era. "Shogun" smashed all-time records at the television awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, taking home an astounding 18 statuettes and becoming the first non-English-language winner of the highly coveted award for best drama series. Lead Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Toranaga, became the first Japanese actor to win an Emmy, while Anna Sawai achieved the same for her performance as Lady Mariko.
"As a Japanese, I'm happy Sanada won," Kiyoko Kanda, a 70-year-old pensioner, told AFP in Tokyo. "He worked so hard since he moved to Los Angeles," she said. "In 'Last Samurai', Tom Cruise was the lead, but it's exciting Sanada is the main character in 'Shogun'," Kanda added.
But she admitted that she only watched the trailer. The series is available only on Disney's streaming platform, which is relatively new in Japan. "I want to watch it.
I'm curious to know how Japan is portrayed," Kanda said. Otsuka, who declined to give her first name, said she, too, has not watched the show. "But I saw the news and I'm happy he won.
" Sanada, now 63, began his acting career at the age of five in Tokyo and moved to LA after appearing in "Last Samurai" in 2003. The words "historic achievements" and "Hiroyuki Sanada" were trending on X in Japanese, while Sanada's speech at the awards racked up tens of thousand.