is a Japanese television programme presented by Osamu Shitara and Yūki Himura, a comedy duo known as "

Bananaman Bananaman is a fictional character appearing in British comic books. Bananaman is a parody of traditional superheroes, being portrayed as a schoolboy who is transformed into a muscled, caped adult man when he eats a banana. The character origin ...

". It is a regular programme on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

on Monday evenings. The show was first broadcast in the form of two pilot shows in June and October 2012 before becoming a recurring series, airing late on Wednesday nights starting 9 January 2013. Due to its popularity, it was moved to the

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

evening slot on Mondays beginning with the episode broadcast on 15 April 2013, where it has been airing (with slight time changes) ever since. In the programme, a team of interviewers go around various airports in Japan, with

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

as their main reporting hub, and ask non-Japanese arrivals "Why did you come to Japan?". They then attempt to follow the interviewees on their journeys around Japan, in a process called . A question posed for departees is, "What souvenir did you buy?" Besides interviewing people at airports, another skit tries to find non-English teaching foreigners in randomly chosen cities throughout Japan. The show is narrated by Nigerian-born TV personality Bobby Ologun, with additional voiceovers provided by

Daniel Kahl Daniel Kahl (born March 30, 1960 in Monrovia, California) is an American foreign television personality (''gaijin tarento'') and entrepreneur in Japan. He is famous for speaking fluent Yamagata-ben, the dialect of Yamagata Prefecture, a predomina ...

and

Carolyn Kawasaki Carolyn Kawasaki (カイヤ）born Carolyn Jo Higar in German Valley, Illinois, on May 25) is a model, TV personality, and businessperson. Prior to her debut on television in Japan, she traveled Europe, U.S., and Japan as a fashion model for the ...

. A special episode aired on 12 November 2018 had members of girl group Nogizaka46, of whom Bananaman are so-called "official brothers", as guest interviewers. The programme has featured coincidental encounters with celebrities at the airport, including British actor Benedict Cumberbatch and American former baseball player

Leron Lee Leron Lee (born March 4, 1948) is an American former professional left fielder. He played eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He then played eleve ...

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 2832926 2012 Japanese television series debuts Japanese variety television shows TV Tokyo original programming