NEWS member Shigeaki Kato will star in a retelling of the famous story "Sanshiro Sugata," about a young judo student. Originally a novel written by Tsuneo Tomita in 1942, it spawned several film and television adaptations. The most notable one was the 1943 movie, which was Akira Kurosawa's directorial debut. The last adaptation was a 1978 series on NTV starring Hiroshi Katsuno.

The new "Sanshiro Sugata" is a two-hour drama special, set to air on TV Tokyo on December 6. Although the show will be making use of wires and CGI for the action scenes, Kato is currently undergoing special judo training for his role.

The cast includes Jun Kaname (as Sanshiro's final opponent), Noriko Nakagoshi, and Yuika Motokariya.