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The story
It was revealed on the 8th that actor Yutaka Mizutani (74) had taken roughly two weeks off from filming the TV Asahi drama “Aibou (Partners) season 25” starting in late August, due to poor health brought on by the extreme heat. The network confirmed the break to reporters, explaining that the new season will still premiere as scheduled on October 21. On the 5channel “Geinou/Sports Breaking News+” board, discussion centered on Mizutani’s age and the long history of the “Aibou” series, with users citing precedents of elderly cast members continuing on in detective dramas on other networks, and debating whether this summer was really as brutally hot as claimed.
Sports Nippon
[September 9, 2026, 04:00]
It was learned on the 8th that actor Yutaka Mizutani (74) has been taking a temporary break due to poor health. Filming has already begun on the new season of TV Asahi’s lead drama “Aibou season 25,” set to premiere October 21, and according to our reporting he has been off set for about two weeks since late August. The network confirmed the break to our paper, commenting: “He wasn’t feeling well because of the extreme heat, so we had him take a short rest, but the broadcast will still start as planned on October 21.”
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
He'd have hit mandatory retirement ages ago in a normal job
TV Asahi is the network that kept Makoto Fujita playing an active detective in "Hagure Keiji" until he was 75, and Shiro Ito in "Okashina Keiji" until he was 86
By TV Asahi's standards, 74 is still young
I want to see a new "Okashina Keiji" (Weird Detective)
Ito's "Okashina Keiji" wasn't even a regular weekly series, and mid-run cast exits from weekly dramas (like "Yamada Ikka no Shinbou" or "Ashita ga Aru sa") have actually been fairly common for over 25 years
Don't think it was even that hot
It wouldn't be strange if the police extended their retirement age too
Was it always like this every season?
Construction sites probably actually take heat precautions seriously
It's the jobs where people rarely go outside but occasionally do outdoor work where the precautions are shaky and it's actually more dangerous
Guess it didn't end after all
For some reason this reminds me of Masaki Kanda…
Suit and tie in this brutal heat
Wouldn't be surprised if other cast members aren't feeling well either
Wouldn't be surprising, everyone's getting up there in age
They're not filming outdoors the whole time, idiot
Background and Talking Points
“Aibou” began airing in 2000, and this new season marks season 25, with Mizutani having starred continuously since the very first season — making it one of the longest-running drama series in Japan. It’s standard practice for many weekly dramas to shoot location scenes in summer so they can air in autumn or winter, so the structural issue of long summer shoots taking a toll on veteran actors’ health isn’t unique to this case. Opinions in the thread were also split on whether this summer was genuinely a record scorcher, with some doubting the stated reason for the break based on their own differing impressions of the heat. Note that the report only cites “the effects of the extreme heat” — no specific symptoms or whether he was hospitalized have been disclosed. It’s also worth keeping in mind that TV Asahi has explicitly stated the new season’s broadcast schedule (starting October 21) will not change.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports Breaking News+) thread “Yutaka Mizutani Takes Temporary Break Over Health Issues from Extreme Heat, Mid-Filming on “Aibou”; New Season Still Set to Air From October 21.”
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