Doctor X: Mafia in White Brings Japan's Doctor-X to SBS

Sixty-nine episodes and a special, spread over seven seasons and nine years of Japanese television. Twelve episodes in Korea, starting Friday.

Doctor X: Mafia in White premieres on SBS on Friday, October 9, at 9:50 p.m. KST, and What's on Netflix reports that it reaches Netflix the same day. It is a remake. In December 2025, TV Asahi announced that its medical drama Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon was being adapted in Korea, the first international version of a series it counts among Japan's most acclaimed. Kim Ji-won plays Gye Su-jeong, whom TV Asahi calls the Korean counterpart to Michiko Daimon. Cast and episode details live on our Doctor X drama page; this piece is about the original, the teasers and the timing.

Doctor X: Mafia in White against Japan's original

Original against remake. The two shows side by side, from TV Asahi's announcement, the Japanese series' Wikipedia entry and Korean coverage.

Detail	Doctor-X (Japan)	Doctor X (Korea)
Network	TV Asahi	SBS; Netflix the same day, per What's on Netflix
On air	October 18, 2012 to December 16, 2021, plus a 2024 film	From October 9, 2026, Fridays and Saturdays at 21:50 KST
Length	Seven seasons: 69 episodes and one special	12 episodes
Lead	Ryoko Yonekura as Michiko Daimon	Kim Ji-won as Gye Su-jeong
The surgeon	A freelance surgeon working at university hospitals	Sent by a medical staffing agency to Guseo University Hospital
The line	"I never fail," which TV Asahi calls her iconic line	The first teaser ends on her saying she does not fail, per Break News
The pitch	A surgeon who never bows to hospital hierarchies, per C21Media	A "socially conscious" medical noir, per TV Asahi

Two things stand out. The length: 12 episodes is about a sixth of the original's 70, and at two a week the Korean run fits into six weekends, against nine years in Japan. The line: SBS did not bury the source. It closed its first teaser on a version of the catchphrase.

TV Asahi gives the original an average of 11.6% among individuals and 20.4% among households across all seasons, from Video Research data for the Kanto region. The Korean figures below are Nielsen Korea's, so the remake's first number will not sit on the same scale. Quoted by C21Media, TV Asahi executive producer Satoko Uchiyama said: "I've always hoped to see Doctor-X localised in various countries." She had discussed remakes with producers in Korea and North America.

What the teasers show: a black coat, an agency and a dare

SBS's first teaser, as Break News described it on September 7, opens with a masked Gye saying she will operate, then puts her in a black leather coat among doctors in white. Jang Hee-sook, head of the medical staffing agency and played by Lee Jung-eun, introduces her as the agency's top surgeon. Gye tells a patient to decide whether to die in a month or in 100 years. The intern Park Tae-kyung, played by Kim Woo-seok, says after watching her operate that she was like a god, or a monster. Then comes the line about not failing.

The first-episode clip went up on September 28 and, according to SBS Star, passed 2.73 million views in three days. In it, per Special Times, Gye, sent in to cover a staffing shortage, tells the hospital's doctors she hates them: people who studied only to make money and get ahead. Kim Ji-won, in a comment carried by SBS Star: "What makes Gye Soo-jung so attractive is the contrast between her outward appearance and the new layers that reveal themselves the closer you look."

SBS sells the show as the first medical title in its cider universe, the cathartic justice dramas whose earlier titles include Taxi Driver, The Fiery Priest and The Judge from Hell, per Ten Asia and Break News. The Judge from Hell opened at 6.8% nationwide on September 21, 2024 and reached 13.6% by episode 8, by the Nielsen Korea figures in its Wikipedia ratings table. Kim Ji-won returns after two years away from dramas; her last, Queen of Tears, peaked at 24.9%, according to Ten Asia. Lee Jung-rim, director of VIP and Revenant, works from a script by Pyeon Seong-geun.

When it airs, where to stream it, and Friday's other premiere

In Korea, it airs on SBS on Fridays and Saturdays at 21:50 KST from October 9, per Wikipedia. Twelve episodes at two a week make six weekends; if SBS runs it without a break, episodes 11 and 12 fall on November 13 and 14. Outside Korea, What's on Netflix reports new episodes on Netflix on Fridays and Saturdays, and its October list describes the release as global, outside South Korea. Neither Netflix nor SBS has published a drop time for other time zones that we could find, so we are not printing a converted one. Our guide to watching K-dramas legally sets out what each service carries.

Friday also brings Take Charge of My Heart to Netflix: 12 episodes, with Kim Young-kwang as Baek Ho-rang, who lives with an artificial heart that is starting to fail, and Chae Soo-bin as a woman who can produce electricity and charge it, per What's on Netflix.

Quick answers

Is the Korean Doctor X a remake?

Yes. TV Asahi announced in December 2025 that Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon was being remade in Korea by Studio Dragon, Studio S and HighZium Studio for SBS.

What time does Doctor X air?

9:50 p.m. KST on SBS, Fridays and Saturdays from October 9. What's on Netflix reports a Netflix release the same day; we found no published drop time for other regions.

Who are the "white mafia"?

The doctors. Star News describes Guseo University Hospital as a place where medical professionals have become "white mafias chasing power and profit."

Mina's Take

The real adaptation is the length, not the cast. Japan's Doctor-X ran as a habit: seven seasons of a freelance surgeon who never bows to a hospital hierarchy. Korea gives Gye Su-jeong six weekends, so she needs an arc rather than a routine, and that is the work the word noir has to do in SBS's pitch. The detail most coverage skips is the teaser's last line. SBS could have played down the source and chose to borrow a version of its catchphrase instead, which tells me it wants viewers of the original in from the first episode. My call: episode 1 opens above The Judge from Hell's 6.8% nationwide premiere. If Nielsen Korea has it at 6.8% or lower, the cider brand is carrying less than I think.

What to watch next

• The first Nielsen figure. Episode 1 airs October 9. My line is 6.8%; The Judge from Hell's 13.6% peak is the longer bar.
• Netflix's weekly Top 10. Doctor X and Take Charge of My Heart start on the same Friday, and the first list to cover it shows which one Netflix viewers picked.
• A second remake. Uchiyama has discussed remakes in North America too. An announcement there would make the Korean version the proof of concept.