Silent Poor (2014)
Silent poor... the poor and needy whose cries for help are drowned out in today's busling society. Their existence is spreading rapidly across the nation, and as such, the government decided to set up a body to help them. Nationwide, there are now people called Community Social Workers (CSW), and their jobs are to attend to the poor and needy. One such person is Satomi Ryo, and she works at the Shitamachi area's Council of Welfare. The people that she meets in her busy working life are people afflicted with juvenile dementia, those who have shunned society and locked themselves up in their rooms, the homeless... generally people who are in despair over life and the fate dealt to them. Ryo herself had been down the lonely road before, and as a way to pull herself out of her depression, she decided to work as a CSW, in order to help others like her. She strongly believes that one can always start all over again, and it is her belief that helps her to move forward in life.
- Atsuko Sagara
Country: JP
Language: Ja
Runtime: 48
Season 1:
Young Satomi Ryo works as a CSW (Community Service Worker) for her local Social Welfare Agency. Her job is to seek out those in her community who are calling out for help for the problems they face but who aren't able to make themselves known. Along with the rookie Miwa Minaka at her side, she'll help out anyone in trouble right to the end, even if it means battling her own Agency to do so. But Ryo's reason for not letting go of the hand she holds out to those silent poor may be due to a secret from her past.
Ryo works with a new CSW worker to try and help a family who is been suffering from multiple, overlapping problems. While Ryo struggles to help the family with their issues and keep them together, those issues nevertheless threaten to pull them apart. But if Ryo and new worker Hara can only get the family's son to come out of the room he has shut himself away in, there may be some hope for all of them.
Ryo comes to the aid of a homeless man who is caught breaking into the apartment he had lived in at one time. The man rebuffs her efforts to help, but Ryo is nothing but determined in her efforts; particularly when she finds out the man may have some relatives. In the course of helping that man out however, she also comes to learn a shocking secret from Section Chief Yamakura.
Ryo's friend and Welfare Officer Keiko's mother is experiencing premature dementia, frustrating Keiko, especially since she still has bitter memories of her mother abandoning her as a child. Now her mother has suddenly wandered off with Keiko's daughter, and the search for them brings those old memories back once more. In the meantime, the other CSW workers try to persuade Eta-san from being taken in by a corrupt contractor.
Ryo and the other CSW workers have started a cafe salon to give those who have withdrawn from society a chance to talk together. This surprisingly brings in the otherwise irritable Neighborhood Council Chief Sonomura, who it turns out has a request for Ryo. Seems his son has been just like one of those men at the salon for nearly 30 years now.
Ryo comes into contact with a young boy sitting in the streets at night. Turns out his mother is a Filipino immigrant who works most of the day. The boy soon begins turning to Ryo though when he has trouble at home. Before long Ryo is discovering the boy's mother may not be in Japan legally.
Ryo works with a woman who wants to take her husband home from the hospital after he had been in a serious traffic accident. Although he has recovered to some degree, dealing with his new disabilities may be more than his wife bargained for. Meanwhile, Ryo's fellow CSW, Minaka, copes with the death of man she had been trying to reach out to...
In this, the penultimate episode, Ryo is made a part of the earthquake evacuees assistance group, focusing on refugees from Fukushima. She soon meets a couple with two children where the husband hasn't been able to find work and has become increasingly despondent. When Ryo finds out he had once worked as a care worker for the elderly, she determines to have him work with the other CSWs. But the man is sure he can no longer help anyone.
In this the final episode, a major storm is about to strike at Tokyo, forcing Ryo and the other CSW workers to try and help the elderly and handicapped in their district to reach safety. However, the storm over Tokyo isn't the only storm that Ryo has to deal with. Now she has to face both her stormy past and future.
