One of the NHK Saturday dramas this coming winter is titled "Full Swing." The story is based on the life of Michihiro Takabatake, who once played for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (known as the Nankai Hawks at the time) but was best known as a batting coach who worked for seven teams over the course of his career and instructed famous players such as Hiroki Kokubo and Ichiro Suzuki. At the age of 58 he became a high school teacher, but he died of cancer about a year later.

Katsumi Takahashi will star in the six-episode series, which focuses mainly on his time as a teacher. The supporting cast includes Ran Ito, Kazue Fukiishi, Masato Hagiwara, Shinya Tsukamoto, Hirotaro Honda, Katsuya Kobayashi, and Kotaro Satomi. Rimi Natsukawa is in charge of the theme song.

The series airs on Saturdays at 9:00pm, starting on January 19.