Former NHK announcer turned super-explainer Akira Ikegami returns to the airwaves for the premier three-hour installment of "Mirai Seiki Zipangu" ("Future Century Zipangu"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 8 p.m.), which looks at topical stories from an economic perspective.
The main topic this week is piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Ikegami travels to Djibouti, where the first overseas Self-Defense Forces base has been set up to patrol the sea passage from the gulf to the Suez Canal, making sure that Japanese vessels aren't attacked by pirates. He then visits a Somalian refugee camp to find out why there are so many pirates in this part of Africa, and what sort of effect the situation will have on Japan's future.
The program will also look at the current economic situation in Indonesia.