Ryōsuke Sagara is an ordinary salaryman and he works for a mid-size shipping company. He is a good-natured person. His family consists of his wife Maho, high school student daughter and elementary school student son. Maho works part-time at a supermarket. They are a happy family, but Maho and their two children suddenly disappear. There are no clues about their disappearance. Ryōsuke gets the attention of the media and public. He tries to find the truth behind his family's disappearance with the help of his subordinate Mizuho Ninomiya at work.

Assistant Inspector Fukuie does not look like an assistant inspector but once she starts an investigation, she takes no notice of anyone as she searches for the key to find out the truth. She does not care for the hierarchical relationship of the organisation or career advancement. If she has doubts, she will not listen to her superior and will persist in investigating to the end. Fukuie’s boss Inspector Ishimatsu is completely different from her. He places importance on the organisation and discipline, is rigid and strait-laced. Ever since Fukuie became his subordinate, his pride has been in tatters because she loves to disregard his instructions and investigate on her own even though this eventually results in success and he gets credit for her achievements. His principle is to investigate using orthodox methods, but the results that Fukuie delivers goes against this and makes him feel ashamed.

Freelance programmer Sakagami is paralyzed in the lower half of his body and confined to a wheelchair. He sets up a company called dele.LIFE in partnership with a law firm established by his late father. At the request of clients, Sakagami works together with a freelance jack-of-all-trades Mashiba to delete all unfavorable digital records of their clients left in their computers and smartphones after they die. They are not supposed to see inside the files but when they feel something strange in the client’s death, they cannot help getting involved.

Centered around typical Japanese food, a solitary salesman travelling through the country for business purposes, eats at its various establishments and experiences the various delicacies of Japanese cuisine.

Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.

Ryōmaden is the 49th NHK Taiga drama. It was shown on NHK from January 3 to November 28, 2010 spanning 48 episodes. The story centers on the life of 19th-century Japanese historical figures Iwasaki Yatarō and Sakamoto Ryōma. It has been announced that the series will be aired in several other countries, for example Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.