was a prime-time television detective

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 series in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It aired on Saturday nights in the 9:00–9:56 p.m. time slot on the Tokyo Broadcasting System

Tokyo Broadcasting System

, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....

 (TBS) network from April 6, 1968 to April 7, 1973. There were a total of 262 episodes, and it was one of the most popular action dramas in Japan at the time.

The story involved "Key Hunter", a special clandestine unit of the International Police, which endeavored to solve various crimes.

"Key Hunter" was a unique TV show, which started out as a grand scale spy thriller

Spy fiction

Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...

 never before seen in Japan. The episodes were individually themed on global crimes and political strife. The initial hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

 theme later evolved to include intellectual elements involving action, and occasionally with commical elements as well.

Tetsuro Tamba

Tetsuro Tamba

was a Japanese actor.-Biography:Tamba is perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice . By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Masaki Kobayashi: Harakiri and Kwaidan...

 had recently starred in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice (film)

You Only Live Twice is the fifth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name...

 as Japanese Secret Service agent Tiger Tanaka, an ally of James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

. This role greatly influenced his image in "Key Hunter".

Key Hunter

— played by Tetsuro Tamba

Tetsuro Tamba

was a Japanese actor.-Biography:Tamba is perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice . By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Masaki Kobayashi: Harakiri and Kwaidan...

ex-intelligence agent — played by Yōko Nogiwa

Yoko Nogiwa

is a Japanese actress.-External links:...

ex-intelligence agent — played by Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Hiroshi Kawaguchi was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in 37 films between 1956 and 1983. He was born in Tokyo, Japan.-Filmography:Filmography of Hiroshi Kawaguchi include:...

 (since episode #60)

ex-FBI agent — played by Hayato Tani

Hayato Tani

Hayato Tani is a Japanese television actor.-Biography:He was born in Kirishima, Kagoshima, Japan and raised in Sasebo, Nagasaki...

power freak — played by Eiko Ōkawa

memory expert & genius — played by Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba

, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist.Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.- Early life :Born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka,...

 —

ex-newspaper reporter

International Police

— played by Noboru Nakaya (appeared very rarely)

Chief of the Special Task Forces — played by Tadao Nakamaru (since episode #104) — played by Hiroshi Miyauchi

Hiroshi Miyauchi

is a prolific Japanese actor from Chiba Prefecture. He is best known for playing some of the most memorable roles in Tokusatsu history, such as Kazami Shiro in Kamen Rider V3 and Ken Hayakawa in Kaiketsu Zubat...

 (since episode #92)

Theme music

The theme music Hijō no License was written by Shunsuke Kikuchi

Shunsuke Kikuchi

is a prolific Japanese composer from Hirosaki. He specializes in incidental music for media such as television and film.Active since the early 60s, he has been one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working principally on tokusatsu and anime productions for children, as well as...

, played as an instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 for the opening theme, and sung by Yōko Nogiwa

Yoko Nogiwa

is a Japanese actress.-External links:...

 for the ending theme.

Source

This article incorporates material from キイハンター (Key Hunter) in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on March 5, 2008.

External links

• DVD Selection from Toei
• KeyHunter, at Beyond Japan Hero