Japan tied with France as the world’s fourth largest unscripted format exporter in 2023 after the U.K. and the U.S., with 5% of the global market, according to K7’s new “Tracking the Giants” annual report.

This puts Japan ahead of Korea’s share of new adaptations for the year, an opening session on Japanese co-productions and formats at Mip TV in Cannes heard this morning.

The U.K. led new adaptations in 2023 with a 25% share, followed by the U.S. with 24% and the Netherlands with 15%.

By active adaptations, including new and returning series and confirmed sales, Japan also had a 5% global market share of exports in 2023, behind the U.K. (38%), the U.S. (19%), and the Netherlands (14%).

The sixth annual global report was published at the weekend for the opening of Mip TV Formats, with the Japan section highlighted for this morning’s focus session, “Navigating Japan: Insights, Co-productions, and New Formats”.

Cross-cultural collaborations are a top trend.

In the past three years, all major Japanese unscripted distributors have been involved in co-developing formats with international partners, K7 Media’s APAC, Middle East and Africa manager, Trang Nguyen, said this morning.

The three titles announced since Mipcom 2023 are Koso Koso (Nippon TV, BBC Studios, EOA), Celebrity Fight Club (TV Asahi and Youngest Media) and Lovers or Liars? (TBS and All3media International).

In the past five years, Japan has led East-West unscripted co-developments with 56% share against South Korea’s 28%, and China’s 8%, the K7 report shows.

All3media international’s EVP, formats and licensing, Nick Smith, says Lovers or Liars? took about 18 months to develop.

A special pilot has already aired on TBS in Japan. Discussions are underway for a full-series commission for TBS.

Lovers or Liars? is All3media’s first format co-development with Asia, and TBS’ first co-development with a global major.   

“We will be a lot quicker on the next one because we know each other now. It took a while to understand each others’ cultures, needs, likes and dislikes,” Smith says.

Shunsuke Fukaya, TBS’ head of format development and producer, echoed his sentiments.

“TBS doesn’t have much experience with co-developments,” Fukaya says.

“The reason we took so long is that we did not want to compromise our understanding of each other’s ideas. I didn’t want to tell our creators that ‘this is what a Western company wants, so just do it’. I wanted to find out why,” he adds.

Both say that their next project, which is already under way, will be much shorter in the development process. Details of the new project have not been announced.

Fukaya highlights the non-verbal communication aspects of Lovers or Liars?, including a dance sequence where judges and the audience have to guess who the real couple is and which of the partners are faking.

“You don’t need language to understand the format,” he says.

Accepting the hidden camera element was All3media’s biggest challenge, Smith says.

“The hidden camera segment was nerve wracking because the way it was done was very different to how we would do it in the U.K.,” he says.

“We had to trust that TBS had the experience and they were confident and they showed us a way we wouldn’t normally have done. We were nervous, but then it worked.”

The dance element – an idea brought to the co-development table by the All3media team – was probably the biggest sticking point for the TBS team.

“We don’t have a dance culture in Japan,” Fukaya says. “We don’t have dance parties or high-school proms. At first the directors found it difficult to understand. But I didn’t want to give up on that segment. So I asked Nick many times why it was so interesting.

“It was a hard time for him too – I really wanted to know what was so interesting in the West. They explained that it’s about physical contact. Yes, we don’t have a dance culture, but we can enjoy the physical contact. We had a lot of conversations.”

Lovers or Liars? is TBS’ first attempt at a format created for the global market from the outset.

“It’s a whole new challenge for us,” Fukaya says.