Itai News links to an article (Japanese) which claims that NTV has decided not to make another series of its drama "Haken no Hinkaku" (Dignity of a Temp). The main character is a temp agency worker, played by Ryoko Shinohara, who proves to be immensely capable and runs rings round the full-time staffers. The programme inverts the usual perception of temps as lower status employees, showing her shunning overtime and putting her own life before the company. However, with the sharp economic downturn claiming the jobs of thousands of agency workers, NTV appears to have rethought the idea of broadcasting a programme which makes fun of the tension between full time workers and temps. The station had given the project a green light as recently as last October and it was due to hit the screen in July. However, by November, the issue of temps was being widely portrayed as a major social problem and the idea of Shinohara's "Super Temp" (in the scene below, she turns her nose up at the idea of full-time work) was beginning to look like a sick joke. NTV has said it is postponing filming but the article suggests the show has actually been cancelled completely.
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