Japan’s longest-running anime switches to reruns due to coronavirus

TOKYO (REUTERS): Japan’s longest-running animated cartoon TV show “Sazae-san” will switch to reruns, instead of airings of new episodes, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Fuji Television Network said.

According to Fuji Television, re-runs will begin next week for the first time since February 1975, when the global economy was massively disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

 “The pandemic has prevented people from gathering to create new episodes for the Sunday evening program,” Fuji Television Network said.

Fuji Television further said that the network will inform viewers via its website when it will resume airing new episodes as soon as it decides the date.

Aired every Sunday since 1969, the Sazae-san show features the everyday ups and downs of suburban Japanese housewife Sazae and her extended family.

The show was acknowledged by Guinness World Records in 2013 as the longest-running animated series, a title that had previously been attributed by the record-keeping organisation to the U.S. show The Simpsons.

Earlier this month, the Japanese government extended the country’s state of emergency to the end of May as part of efforts to stem the spread of the virus.