Treasure Box Japan at MIPCOM Highlights Formats Innovation

Presented by Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan (BEAJ)’s Makito Sugiyama and The WIT’s Virginia Mouseler, with commentary from Empire of Arkadia’s Fotini Paraskakis and Small World’s Tim Crescenti, the Treasure Box Japan showcase at MIPCOM featured new formats available for international broadcasters and platforms to adapt.

The showcase has grown this year, Sugiyama, executive director of BEAJ, noted, with the slate showcased rising from six last year to nine.

The selection included Nippon TV’s Man or Mannequin?, in which celebrity contestants race against time to find mannequins hidden around the city. With increasing difficulty, contestants must distinguish between artificial dummies and humans posing as mannequins. “It is a fun game show with a surprising twist,” said Nippon TV’s Tom Miyauchi, highlighting the format’s flexibility. “You can change the location, you can change the tasks, use different kinds of comedians.”

In The Tortoise and The Hare, billed as “funny and entertaining” from Yomuri TV, one team trains with unreliable online information for a week while the other gets professional instruction.

Fuji TV and The Gurin Company’s The Swap Project features people from different cultures with the same occupation swapping lives for a week and was created to resonate with audiences in Japan and globally. “You’re not just only doing the job, you’re being immersed in their family, whether it’s dysfunctional or not, whether they have kids or don’t, whatever happens there,” said Phil Gurin. “And then it’s the culture. We like the fish out of water [aspect] of the show as well. In this case, Tokyo versus Los Angeles, but it can also be done in regions. We think the format is very flexible, and there’s great storytelling. While there’s a format to it, there’s always a challenge that has to be done. They have to learn something, but at the end of the day, it’s great character storytelling as well as a format.”

The session also spotlighted Quiz 100 from NHK Enterprises; DASUNA—Don’t Show Your Pants!; the long-running show Treasure Appraisers; the large-scale KASSO, featuring Japan’s top skateboarders competing on a unique outdoor set; In the Middle of Nowhere; and Celebrity Fight Club, developed with Youngest Media Group.