Former Diet member Nakamura Atsuo (64) is to return to his acting roots. The man that many know simply as “Monjiro”, after a TV character he made famous in the 1970s, will play legendary samurai Takeda Shingen in an upcoming TV Tokyo period drama. The 10-hour show “Kunitori Monogatari” will air on January 2. It’s been six years since Nakamura did any acting, when he appeared as a ninja in the 1998 Fuji TV-backed movie “Fukuro no Shiro.” He is best known in the west as the star of the 1970s TV series “The Water Margin.” He was elected to the House of Councillors in 1998 but dropped out of politics after failing in a re-election bid this year.