Key Hunter
Japanese television series
title: "Key Hunter" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1968-japanese-television-series-debuts", "1973-japanese-television-series-endings", "japanese-drama-television-series", "shunsuke-kikuchi", "detective-television-series", "tbs-television-(japan)-dramas", "japanese-action-television-series", "japanese-detective-television-drama-series"] description: "Japanese television series" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Hunter" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Japanese television series ::
Key Hunter is a prime-time Japanese television detective series. It aired on Saturday nights in the 9:00–9:56 p.m. time slot on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and its affiliates 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 never before seen in Japan. The episodes were individually themed on global crimes and political strife. The initial hardboiled theme later evolved to include intellectual elements involving action, and occasionally with comical elements as well.
Tetsuro Tanba starred in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice as Japanese Secret Service agent Tiger Tanaka, an ally of James Bond. This role greatly influenced his image in Key Hunter.
Characters
Key Hunter
- Tetsuya Kuroki — played by Tetsuro Tanba : ex-intelligence agent
- Keiko Tsugawa — played by Yōko Nogiwa : ex-intelligence agent
- Ichiro Fubuki — played by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (since episode #60) : ex-FBI agent
- Tatsuhiko Shima — played by Hayato Tani : power freak
- Yumi Taniguchi — played by Eiko Ōkawa : memory expert & genius
- Yosuke Kazama — played by Sonny Chiba : ex-newspaper reporter
International Police
- Tokubetsu Muraoka — played by Noboru Nakaya (appeared very rarely) : Chief of the Special Task Forces
- Shinji Odagiri — played by Tadao Nakamaru (since episode #104)
- Shunsuke Dan — played by Hiroshi Miyauchi (since episode #92)
Key Hunter Detective Agency
- Yuji Taki — played by Masaya Oki (since episode #210) : young private detective who admires Key Hunter members
Theme music
The theme song "Hijō no License" was written by Shunsuke Kikuchi, played as an instrumental for the opening theme, and sung by Yōko Nogiwa for the ending theme.
References
References
- "キーハンターとは". kotobank.
- "キーハンター". 東映.
- "女優の野際陽子さん死去 ８１歳、「キイハンター」「ずっとあなたが好きだった」「ＴＲＩＣＫ」". sankibiz.
- "千葉真一 キーハンターを映画化構想！". デイリー.
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