Pete Hamill, a New York journalist with a long an influential career, has died at 85. His death is being widely reported in Japan because one of his columns inspired a Yoji Yamada film, starring Ken Takakura. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/05/pete-hamill-dead-new-york-newspaper-columnist

You can read the column, originally called "Going Home", through the link. It's a brief portrait of an ex-con returning from prison to see if his wife still wants him. He had asked her to tie a yellow handkerchief on a tree if she did. https://www.townsendpress.com/sites/default/files/tinymce/Library%20Excerpts/tenreal.pdf

Hamill's 1971 column was very popular but probably would not have been noticed in Japan, had the idea not been picked up by the 1973 song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", which was an international hit. Here's a version by Candies.

The actress Chieko Baisho says she was at the house of jazz musician Sadao Watanabe, when she heard the version by Tony Orlando and Dawn. The song and story stuck with her.

Chieko Baisho was a regular in the "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" series, directed by Yoji Yamada. Yamada says he heard her singing the song on set, and was also struck by the story.

The song writers were clearly inspired by Hamill's column, and Hamill had considered legal action. However, the yellow ribbon image was part of an older folk tradition, so he had no case. Still, it was Hamill's original story that Yamada wanted to use for his film.

Yamada later said that Pete Hamill was open to the idea of a film being made of his column but did not want it shown outside Japan. Yamada said the reason for this condition is that Hamill resented the damage Japanese electronics exports were doing to US firms.

幸福の黄色いハンカチ (The Yellow Handkerchief) was released in 1977. It had top acting talent in Ken Takakura, Chieko Baisho, and Kaori Momoi, Folk singer Tetsuya Takeda, made debut, and would go on to be major TV drama star. Kiyoshi Atsumi also made an appearance.

Can't help feeling that DVD case cover gives away the ending (not that there's really much doubt of what will happen). The full scene is currently on YouTube:

The film was a hit with audiences. It was deeply sentimental but the cast and direction ensured it wasn't too syrupy. It was also a hit with critics, picking up a series of awards.

The film swept the inaugural Japan Academy Awards, held in 1978 at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

As the film had turned out so well, Yamada decided to ask Hamill for permission to show the film outside Japan. he travelled to New York, and had to talked the writer through it, as there were no subtitles. Hamill apparently said it was "beautiful", and relented.

That wasn't to be the last connection to Japan for Pete Hamill. In 1987, he married Fukiko Aoki, herself a journalist a writer based in New York. They were together until his death.