After the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the boy band Tokio had to abandon its farm project, Dash Village, because it fell within the area contaminated by the reactor accident. Since then the quintet has started a new project as part of its long-running show "Za Tetsuwan Dash" ("The Iron Arm Dash"; Nihon TV, Sun., 7 p.m.) called Dash Island. They've been working on building a residence and a small railway on an abandoned island in the Seto Inland Sea. This week they craft a bow and arrow set using materials found on the island and then try it out by recreating the famous Heian Era pastime of shooting arrows at a fixed target from a moving horse — except they don't have a horse so they shoot arrows from a moving hand car.
David Atkinson first came to Japan from the U.K. in 1990 to work as a financial analyst. He made waves by correctly calculating the amount of damage that Japan suffered after the collapse of the late '80s asset bubble, which was much greater than others had thought. He eventually left finance and is now the president of Konishi Decorative Arts and Crafts, a 300-year-old company that restores old architecture. Atkinson is profiled on "Cambria Kyuden" ("Cambrian Palace"; TV Tokyo, Thurs., 9:54 p.m.), and recounts the unusual circumstances that led to his appointment at Konishi, which he has since restored in the same way Konishi restores old buildings. His main task was to make the company's books more systematic. Traditional craftsmen tend to give very rough estimates for a job, which often end up costing more than they thought.