Tadasu Asano is the main antagonist of first arc of the critical acclaim 2013 and 2020 Japanese drama series Naoki Hanzawa.
He is portrayed by Kanji Ishimaru.
Plot[]
Asano is the branch manager of Osaka Nishi branch of Tokyo Chuo Bank and superior of senior loan officer Naoki Hanzawa.
When Hanzawa proposes a loan for a struggling but promising screw manufacturer, he is forced by branch manager Asano (Kanji Ishimaru) to grant an unsecured loan of 500 million yen to Nishi Osaka Steel, despite the lack of proper financial investigation, to meet the target loan set by the head office. However, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt, and both president Mitsuru Higashida (Takashi Ukaji) and the 500 million yen loan disappear. Asano shifts the blame to Hanzawa and orders him to recover the amount or face termination. Hanzawa promises that if he manages to recover the money, Asano must kneel and apologize to him.
Hanzawa joins forces with Kiyohiko Takeshita (Hidekazu Akai), whose business was lost as collateral damage from Nishi Osaka Steel's bankruptcy. The two discover that the entire event was a scheme set up by Asano and Higashida who turned out to be childhood friends. It is revealed that Osaka Steel is purposely bankrupted by Higashida to defraud 500 millions yen from the bank and Asano helped Higashida after being bribed 50 millions yen to pay back his loss in a stock scheme went wrong. Racing against time and the Taxation Office investigation, Naoki is able to recover the entire 500 million yen for the bank from Higashida's bank account from the New York Trust Bank, leaving Higashida's empty-handed and he is arrested later on. Hanzawa wishes to expose Asano to the media, but out of sympathy for his wife and family he instead leverages his evidence against Asano, ensuring that his subordinates can be promoted to positions of their choice. Asano formally apologizes to Hanzawa and states that he did all of this because he lost too much from his failed stock investment. Asano then kneels before Hanzawa to apologize to him as promise. Subsequently, Hanzawa is promoted to deputy Manager of the 2nd Operations Department at banks' Tokyo Boss Headquarters while Asano is transferred to be the manager of the bank branch in the Philippines. According to the radio drama, Asano eventually quitted his job to accompany his wife and children.