Things are going absolutely great for SMAP this year. They celebated their 20th anniversary, had their first concert overseas - in Beijing - and will be featured in Professional Shigoto no Ryu-gi on 10 October!
There are two firsts about this documentary. First, it is SMAP's first time since their debut to appear in an NHK documentary. Second, it is NHK's first time to feature entertainment idols! (I know Kimura once said that he doesn't consider themselves as musicians. He's more comfortable being referred to as entertainers.}
Here's the link to the news from Tokyohive.com
By the way, Professional is one of my favorite shows in NHK because it is so inspirational. The subjects are mostly out-of-the-box thinkers. However, I've not seen it for a long time, (been too busy and I forgot its sked) the last one featured a road accident investigator and it was an encore.
The format is usually like this. The subject is followed by a camera for several months to document what they do, their daily schedule, how they work and how they deal with the problems they face each day. It seeks to unravel how they rose to the top and be successful in their field. Towards the end, the professionals will define what is a professional, and they will give lots of quotable quotes that provide for the motivation to be like the professional. Watching one episode of this is like attending a business/life coaching session. It's awesome.
I'm so excited because it will feature SMAP and I don't see them a lot on NHK except in the yearender Kouhaku. NHK is the only Japanese channel carried by the cable we subscribe to. I'm assuming that the English version will come out a week later. Fingers crossed.
Here's the announcement in NHK website.
