It's been said that Japanese people, especially younger ones, no longer travel abroad in search of adventure. This week there are three programs that go looking for Japanese people who do just that.
One of the shows is the special two-hour premiere of a new series called "Sekai no Nihonjin-zuma wa Mita" ("What the World's Japanese Wives Saw"; TBS, Tues., 7 p.m.), which seeks out married Japanese women living in foreign countries. However, the husbands aren't necessarily non-Japanese. For instance, this week the subject is the wife of walking guru Duke Saraie, a Japanese national who lives in Monaco among the rich and fabulous. The show also visits a few wives who live in New York.
Taking a more adventurous route, the three-hour special "Sekai Naze Soko ni? Nihonjin" ("Why in the World Here? Japanese"; TV Tokyo, Fri., 6:30 p.m.) reports on Japanese people who not only live abroad, but do so for very unusual reasons. One man resides in Tanzania, where he partakes of dangerous safari tours. His family lives back in Japan, so why is he "risking his life" in this dangerous occupation?