The story of the NHK morning drama series (asadora) Massan (2014/15) is loosely based on real events and deals with the Japanese whisky pioneer Massan and his Scottish wife Ellie in pre-and postwar Japan. During the 150 episodes, Ellie assimilates into the Japanese society and grows into the role of a ‘good wife and wise mother’ (ryôsai kenbo), while her husband succeeds in producing the first authentic whisky made in Japan.

In my paper, I will analyze the series’ narrative from the perspective of multiculturalism in contemporary Japan. I will argue that the series falls into the trap of representing the heroine as a stereotypical foreigner, resembling figures who perform their otherness in Japanese TV shows (e.g., Iwabuchi 2015; Yano 2010). Ellie acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy in praise of Japan’s uniqueness and reinforcing clichés of foreign residents. By doing so, this morning drama series establishes an imagined and exclusive national community for its audience, in which a serious discussion of foreigners living in Japan remains absent.

In addition, I will draw on the theme of whisky production, which becomes the protagonist Massan’s main achievement both on a personal and a national level. His whisky entrepreneurship thus serves as a symbol for Japan’s postwar economic success, also reflecting several tropes of national ideology and fostering them, such as the belief in a particular Japaneseness.