Inspector "Sugishita Ukyo," has been assigned to the "Special Missions" branch of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department for years. Due to a physically exhausting MPD secret mission that went bad, he was dumped into a nothing-to-do "two person office" in hopes that he'd resign out of boredom. (I've seen this kind of rustication operate in other Japanese TV shows and movies.) The "Special Missions" office is located in Section Three's (Financial crimes) former store room..
However, much to the dismay of higher ups, he begins to investigate Cold and Inactive Police cases...and solves them! Careful to involve/drag along an appropriate branch of the MPD, who do the final arrest, the pair gain grudging respect of rank-and-file Police detectives. Actor Mizutani Yutaka has played "Inspector Sugishit Ukyo" since 2000-2018. This includes a pilot and several "Aibou" TV movie specials.
The first partner was "Sergeant Kameyama," who rubbed his precinct the wrong way with his enthusiasm and active approach to crime solving. Sugishita's "bad habit" of looking into the details of the case meshed well with Kameyama's "gangbusters" style. (Actor Terawaki Yasufumi played "Sgt. Kameyama Kaoru" from 2000-2012, Seasons 1-6)
The second partner was "Lt. Kanbe" a mysterious sort, assigned from the Security branch of the MPD. (Actor Oikawa Mitsuhiro played "Lt. Kanbe Takeru" from 2008-2010, Seasons 7-10)
The third partner was "Sgt. Kai," an elite with a high ranking father in the MPD. (Actor Nariyama Hiroki played "Sgt. Kai Toru" from 2012-2015, Seasons 11-13.)
The fourth partner was "Wataru Kaburagi" a bureaucrat instead of a Police officer. (Actor Sorimachi Takahasi played "Wataru Kaburagi" from 2015-2018, Season 14-16.)
Other notable characters are "Yonezawa Mamoru," the head of Forensics, (played by Rokkaku Seiji), the head of Section Three, "Kakuta Rokuro" (played by Yamanishi Atsushi), Section Two detectives "Itami Kenichi" (played by Kawahara Kazuhisa), "Miura Shinsuke" (played by Otani Ryosuke), and "Serizawa Kenji" (played by Yamanaka Takahashi).
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Reply by Patrick E. Abe
on June 4, 2021 at 12:15 AM
Addendum, 6/3/2021 Currently, "Partners 15" is playing on KIKU TV, but there will not be enough time to finish this season. KIKU TV will cease broadcasting multicultiural content on June 28. 2021. Due to an ownership change (I suspect), this station will become a 24/7 shopping channel. So ends 40 years of "basic cable" Asian TV in Hawaii. I have signed up with Nippon Golden Network to see what kind of programming that this Super Premium channel has been broadcasting all these years. So far, there are a number of interesting dramas beginning in the first week of June 2021. There's also a movie channel, which shows Samurai/Yakuza/Modern dramas, from the 1950's to the present. It looks OK, but there's not much data on the TV dramas, especially "Iryu Sosa," also known as "CSI" on KIKU TV. Well, there's KBFD, which broadcasts subtitled Korean language programs, which have/had quite a following locally.