Girls’ Generation to make cameo appearance in Japanese drama

Sankei Sports Shimbun's article on Girls' Generation on December 16, 2010. [Sankei Sports Shimbun]

Korean female idol group Girls’ Generation will make a one-time appearance on a popular Japanese drama next month, according to Japanese Sankei Sports Shimbun on Thursday.

According to Sankei Sports and other Japanese media today, the nine-member Girls’ Generation will make an appearance on Fuji TV’s special family drama “Sazae-san 3 (サザエさん3).”

In the story about an ordinary Japanese family and their neighbors living in Sakura-Shinmachi of Tokyo with its family members named after either a sea or seafood, the girls will appear as caddies in the father’s dream, dressed in pink to cheer for the old man as he succeeds making a hole-in-one.

“Sazae-san” is based on Japan’s oldest and longest-running comic strip of the same name by Machiko Hasegawa that ran from 1946 to 1974. It was later made into animation series in 1969 that was then aired for over 40 years.

With the drama known to be strictly about Japan and for Japanese people only, Girls’ Generation will be the first foreigner to appear in the show.

The drama's producer Asano Sumi was quoted as saying that Girls' Generation seemed perfect to play the role after watching their promotion video.

Sankei Sports explained that all nine members were able to participate in the shooting as it took place in mid-October, just before member Tiffany took a break from all activities after suffering an injury to her knee.

Popular K-pop band Girls’ Generation which debuted in Japan last August, has seen their career in the country fare well so far this year, having both of their singles “Genie” and “Gee” become certified gold disc status after selling over 100,000 copies each.