Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2010

Photo by Jun Sato

Kiefer Sutherland has gained such an enormous following in Japan that whenever he visits to promote his TV series, the media simply refer to him as “Jack.” The 43-year-old actor, who stars as federal counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer in the hit Fox television series 24, was in town recently to promote the upcoming DVD release of the show’s eighth and final season.

“I think that one of the reasons that we were able to keep the series going for eight seasons was because of fan support in Japan and Asia,” he said. Sutherland also remarked that because 24 premiered a few months after September 11, 2001, people around the world could identify with the threat of terror, no matter what their culture or language.

Fans in Japan are about to be treated to an overdose of 24, as Fox plans to air seasons 1-7 consecutively for a whole week beginning at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day. Fox will also run a promotion in which viewers can win ¥100,000 every hour, or ¥16.8 million in total. “It’s interesting that DVDs do just as well as the TV episodes,” Sutherland said. “There are fans all over the world who buy the entire series on DVD and watch the whole lot in two days.”

The final season of 24 finds Jack seeking revenge against corrupt Russian and US government figures for the murder of his girlfriend. He also attempts to expose an upcoming global peace treaty as a sham, and as if that weren’t enough, he’s being pursued by his own side, which sees him as a rogue agent.

Sutherland said the final day of filming was extremely emotional. “I had six months to prepare for it. We had the same crew for season 1 as we had all the way through season 8, and I think over the course of making 24 there were 16 marriages, 30 children were born, and we were all a part of that. Honestly, we spent more time with each other than we did with our own families. It was much more difficult than I imagined to say goodbye to everyone.”

Of course, season 8 isn’t the end of Jack Bauer: the finale nicely sets up the long-awaited movie version. Sutherland promised fans plenty of thrills. “It will be two hours and not in real time, as the TV series was,” he explained. “That will free up the writers to try something new. The film’s look will be a little different from the show, but the basics won’t change. It’s going to be a bad day and Jack Bauer will find himself in the middle of it, as usual.”

For details about the Fox Japan giveaway, see http://tv.foxjapan.com.

Chris Betros is the editor of Japan Today (www.japantoday.com).