Sendo Nobuko → Senno Hiromi (千野弘美) as Haru (Oshin's older sister).

Yoshioka Yuichi (吉岡祐一) as Shoji (Oshin's older brother).

Oji Michio as Naka (Oshin's grandmother).

Otowa Nobuko as Oshin (50 to 84 years old).

Tanaka Yuko as Oshin (16 to 46 years old).

Kobayashi Ayako as Oshin (6 to 10 years old).

Oshin gave viewers outside Japan - whose only image of Japan was formed by Japanese cars or electric goods, or through bitter memories of Japanese treatment during World War II - a far better understanding of the modern Japan and its people. Some Japanese worried that showing Oshin abroad would give the country a bad profile - and would even be shameful because it showed the seldom glimpsed, poor, unequal side of Japan. Viewers were drawn to the suffering of the main character Oshin - and then drew similarities between her story and their own home lives. Broadcast in the early 1980s when Japan had finally cast off the legacy of the post-war years and the Japanese were beginning to reap the benefits of economic development, the aim of the story was to recall the hardships the older generation had endured in order to pave the way for their children to enjoy their more affluent lifestyle. Oshin tells the story of a girl born in a very poor rural family in Japan, who through hard work and perseverance eventually triumphs over pain and adversity to achieve fame and success.

Oshin serial