Japan remains one of the world’s most insular television format markets, exporting globally successful unscripted hits while importing almost no foreign concepts, according to data presented by Virginia Mouseler, CEO of The WIT, during the “Fresh TV: Japan” session at Mip London.
Using the company’s real-time tracking database, Mouseler said Japan currently ranks as the world’s seventh-largest exporter of formats, “at the same level as South Korea,” even as it adapts very little international IP.
WIT’s Top Formats tool showed Japanese-origin “Dragon’s Den” continuing to rank among the most widely adapted unscripted formats globally over the past year, alongside international hits including “The Floor,” “The A Talks” and “The Traitors.”
Among Japanese formats themselves, the most adapted unscripted titles over the past 12 months include “Dragon’s Den,” “LOL,” “Freeze” and the long-running game show “Run for Money,” highlighting the export strength of high-concept entertainment formats built around simple game mechanics.
At the same time, Japan remains highly resistant to importing foreign formats. According to WIT data, only two international formats were adapted locally over the past year, compared with none the year before.
One of those imports was the South Korean relationship competition “Wedding Wars,” based on CJ ENM’s “Wedding Fighters,” which premiered on streaming platform Abema in April. The other was a reboot of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” returning to Japanese television 26 years after its first local version.
Mouseler noted that Japan has “a long, long tradition of importing no formats,” with the country currently ranking 15th globally as a format importer.
Much local activity instead revolves around revivals and reinventions of homegrown IP, including the recent reboot of the classic game show “Challenges on Fire,” which returned three decades after its original run.
The presentation also highlighted a new generation of Japanese entertainment formats centered on visually driven physical mechanics and social-strategy gameplay, including hybrid deduction formats, endurance-based competition shows such as “Cash or Splash,” and Nippon TV’s rotating-stage challenge format “Turn” (“Mawase”), underscoring Japan’s continued focus on highly visual, easily exportable game concepts.