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 certifie ...

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 Airpo ...

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 is a Nigerian-born television personality and mixed martial artist with Japanese citizenship. In Japan, he is known simply as . He speaks English, Yoruba and Japanese. He lives in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture. On July 26, 2007, he announced on ...

, 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 predomin ...

and Carolyn Kawasaki. A special episode aired on 12 November 2018 had members of girl group

Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshimotozaka46, a ...

, 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 Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Oli ...

and American former baseball player Leron Lee.

References

External links

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