7 Romantic Japanese Dramas That Should Be On Your Watchlists

You need to jump onboard the J-drama hypetrain now!

May 23, 2025
  • Still from  Japanese Drama 'First Love' (2022)
    Still from 'First Love' (2022)Netflix

    If you’ve spent countless hours swooning over Korean and Chinese dramas, you can’t sleep on romantic dramas from Japan!


    Japanese dramas, or J-Dramas if you will, are underrated gems that rarely get their due as compared to anime and movies from the region. These TV shows cover a wide range of genres, from action and horror to romance and slice-of-life dramas. If you’re looking for something new to watch this weekend, give these romance dramas a go.

    You may also like

    There’s something for every kind of romance lover, from sweet and funny to slow-burning, angst-filled dramas. Without further ado, here are some of our favourite romantic Japanese TV shows that you need to watch now…

    Best Romantic Japanese Dramas To Watch On Netflix, Viki And More

    First Love (2022)

    This heartwarming drama is all about second chances. It follows two people who met each other as children in the 90s and grew up together, only to get separated because of circumstances. They reunite years later and try to rekindle their past love, but things are not as easy as they seem in the present. The show has a great OST and stunning visuals.


    Watch it here

    The Many Faces of Ito (2017)

    This Netflix original rom-com series revolves around jaded screenwriter, Rio Yazaki, who is stuck writing romantic scripts. She decides to trick four love-sick women into thinking she has smart love advice for them to mine their love lives for content. The drama is based on the novel Ito-Kun A to E by Asako Yuzuki.


    Watch it here

    Cursed In Love (2020)

    Cursed in Love Japanese Drama
    WeTV

    If you like heartwrenching slow burns, then this one is for you. It follows a confectionery maker whose turbulent past makes it difficult for her to practice her art. However, meeting an old connection years later might bring the change she’s looking for. There’s mystery, time skips, romance, and tonnes of angst in this one.


    Watch it here

    My Love Mix-Up! (2021)

    Like the name suggests, this high school romance follows a mix-up that causes our protagonist Aoki to assume his crush actually has feelings for another boy, Ida. Things get even more chaotic when Ida begins to believe that Aoki has a crush on him. It’s a silly and sweet drama that you can binge-watch in one sitting.


    Watch it here

    Rich Man (2018)

    A remake of the popular Japanese series Rich Man, Poor Woman (2012), this one follows the story of a CEO of an IT company who suffers from a facial recognition disability and a job seeker from the countryside who has superlative memory. Their unexpected meeting turns their lives upside down in all the good ways.


    Watch it here

    Coffee and Vanilla (2019)

    This drama is perfect for anyone who loves a healthy dose of melodrama in their romance. In the drama, a true-blue romantic girl from a small town moves to Tokyo to attend university. She longs for the kind of romance that’s there in books and movies and when she meets an older businessman, it looks like her dream for the perfect love story might come true. But things soon go south when her partner’s past comes knocking on their doorstep.


    Watch it here

    Fight Song (2022)

    Fight Song Japanese Drama
    Viki

    This lighthearted romance answers the question based on the adage ‘You should never meet your heroes!' Down-on-her-luck Kisara Hanae meets the songwriter, whose work she had idolised for years, only to discover that he’s actually an erratic, one-hit-wonder, who is nothing like who she thought he was. But it soon becomes evident that there’s more to his story than meets the eye. Throw in Hanae’s old friend who has a crush on her, and you’ve got a good old-fashioned love triangle on your hands!



    Watch it here

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    For Manifest to become one of Cambridge Dictionary's most viewed words of 2024 — 1,30,000 hits and counting — it means some of us must have Googled it at least once. I know, I hit that search button over and over again
    because each time I looked at it, I saw a new meaning.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Putting together a homegrown title at a time when the demise of print has been long announced may seem surprising...
    ...but it has long been a dream of mine to give India a magazine it deserves. A magazine that is the country.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    And nothing, absolutely nothing, represents India more than our weddings.It is a time when families are brought together. Traditions come alive as they are adapted to each couple's beliefs. And lives are joined in a way that the romantic in me still enjoys.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    The fact that it comes with band, baaja and baraat — what's not to love?And that is the reason our first issue celebrates:
    THE NEW BRIDE.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    If you look at
    'Curate Beautiful, Create Happy'individually, they are powerful but when you put them together, they become a promise. While each section is dedicated to a word, I hope you will see this as your first of many handbooks for happiness.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Curate
    Where we give you a fast-paced look into everything you should wish list when you start to think about marriage. What to buy and how to dress, along with modern mithai and the homegrown fragrance makers to bookmark. Make special note of the feature on alta.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Beautiful
    It has everything you need to make your wedding special. From the big comeback of red and pink in bridal wear to how the cool kids are wearing corsets to the celebration, there is only one way to get ready for a wedding —with enjoyment.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Create
    This section is a building block, a step to a better life. A place where we have all the answers. Or at least the beginning of a great conversation.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Happy
    This needs very little description. It has travel with a special focus on incredible India, and a collection of wedding albums, sourced randomly, but collected with abundance because happiness has no limits.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    This first issue has a lot more, including a carefully edited address book of everything you need to make your wedding perfectly 'gramworthy! But it doesn't stop there. Each issue will be different because each one of you is unique.
    Because we manifested this difference, now we will celebrate you.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media