About What Did You Eat Yesterday?
What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Kinou Nani Tabeta?) is a gentle Japanese slice-of-life drama that premiered on TV Tokyo's Drama24 block in 2019, adapted from the long-running manga by Fumi Yoshinaga. It follows Shiro Kakei, a careful, budget-minded lawyer, and his warm, easygoing hairdresser partner Kenji Yabuki, two men in their late forties who share a quiet life in Tokyo. The series is built around the simplest of rituals: the meals Shiro plans, shops for, and cooks each evening, and the conversations the couple share over dinner.
Rather than chasing big dramatic turns, the show finds its heart in everyday domesticity. Shiro's meticulous grocery math, his pride in a perfectly seasoned dish, and Kenji's appreciative delight at the table become a tender shorthand for a long-term relationship. Each episode lingers on the cooking itself, turning recipes into a kind of language through which the partners express care, work through small worries, and slowly let the people around them, from family to colleagues, into their lives.
Across its two seasons, a New Year special, and a feature film, the series treats its central couple with quiet respect, balancing comfort-food warmth with honest moments about aging, acceptance, and belonging. It has earned a devoted following at home and abroad for its wholesome tone, its loving attention to home cooking, and its portrait of companionship measured not in grand gestures but in the question that gives the show its name.
