Actor Eiji Akaso Wants to Keep Challenging Himself

By Takashi Oki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

12:15 JST, February 21, 2025

To be honest, “Sozoku Tantei” (“Inheritance Detective”), the title of a drama now airing on the Nippon TV network on Saturdays at 9 p.m. did not make sense to me at first. How are inheritance and detective work connected? Their relationship may be the key to the story, I supposed.

“This drama is different from many other mysteries. It focuses on the thoughts that a person who is now dead had wanted to convey to someone. I think wills can be powerful messages,” said Eiji Akaso, who plays the lead character in the drama, before the drama aired.

In the drama, Nao Haie (Akaso), a detective and former elite lawyer, teams up with a medical student who is on leave (Hiyori Sakurada) and a former researcher at the Metropolitan Police Department’s scientific research institute (Yuma Yamoto) to solve inheritance-related cases. It is based on a manga of the same name.

When inheritances are involved, human relationships are bound to become contentious. Even facing such situations, Haie appears easygoing and elusive.

Akaso says that the story has some comedic elements and, when he was acting, he kept that in mind and “tried hard to distinguish between the comic and the serious parts as appropriate.”

Recently, Akaso has been playing the lead in many high-profile works.

“As I’ve gained more experience, I may have become bigger in some ways,” Akaso said. “When playing a role, I may think I know how to play it correctly. However, I shouldn’t believe in myself too much. I want to keep suspecting that ‘the way I’m doing it may not be right.’”

Akaso sincerely answered each of my questions. I thought his behavior matched his on-screen “nice young man” persona. I asked him if this image prevents him from taking on more diverse roles.

“Each of us is born and raised in a certain environment. There are always positive and negative sides to that. Now, I may be enjoying the positive side, and I want to expand my range, if that’s the case,” Akaso said.

He added, “When acting, I think it’s important to consciously expand the qualities I have.”

Akaso, 30, grew up in Aichi Prefecture. He has appeared in NHK’s serial morning drama “Maiagare!” (“Soar High!”) and many other TV dramas and films.

Akaso says that he is not the 30-year-old man he had imagined as a child.

He thought he would be married, have children and pets and enjoy taking walks with them. “Now I just read scripts and memorize my lines by mumbling them. I never thought I’d be like this.”

But he says that he never hates himself for being that way.

“I don’t want to be stable. I want to constantly keep challenging myself,” Akaso said. “Being happy all the time might be nice, but I’ll always just do my best, one step at a time,” Akaso said.

Questions to Eiji Akaso

The Yomiuri Shimbun: If you were not an actor, what would you like to be doing?

Eiji Akaso: If I don’t have to think about ability, I’d like to be like Shohei Ohtani. A major league player, I mean. But that’s impossible. In reality, I think I’d either be employed by a car dealer or become a mechanic, as I like cars.

Yomiuri: What are you most interested in these days?

Akaso: I watch a lot of cat videos. Recently, I have been enjoying looking at cats and being soothed by them. Cats are so cute.