Ninety percent of the restaurants that open in Japan go out of business within five years. It's tough, so those that survive must have something special. This week's "Nichiyo Big Variety" ("Sunday Big Variety"; TV Tokyo, Sun., 7:54 p.m.) is about "famous restaurants" that have gone out of business for one reason or another but were then resurrected.

The owner of a ramen restaurant in Hiroshima had to close his establishment after he suffered a stroke, but the joint was bought by a man who has been a regular customer for 25 years and who plans to reopen it. There's also a bakery in Akita famous for rice-flour bread that closed some time ago. A carpenter who knows nothing about baking bought it and plans to make the same kind of bread.

SMAP leader Masahiro Nagai is a noted sports fan and puts his expertise to the test on the three-hour special "Gogai Scoop Neraimasu" ("Aiming for an Extra Edition Scoop"; TV Asahi, Tues., 7 p.m.).

The big sports story of the last few months has been the unexpected strong showing by the national team at the Rugby World Cup. The program looks at all the new rugby fans in Japan, who, as demonstrated by a series of man-on-the-street interviews, still don't know much about the game. There is also a long montage showing painful as well as humorous moments on the rugby field. And the romantic situation of the team's players is explored as well.

Speaking of romance, Nagai helps choose the nine "most beautiful" wives of Japanese professional baseball players, who will show up in the studio. There is also a report on new figure skaters, as well as an "awards ceremony."

CM of the week

Jetstar: Actress Mirei Kiritani is walking through an airport with a smaller and much younger, but otherwise identical, version of herself named Mametani. They're both very angry, spitting out various phrases using the word saitei, which means "lowest" but is usually translated to mean "worst." Suddenly, Kiritani realizes something, and stops. "Actually," she says, "I don't hate the 'lowest' at all," and then proclaims that "saitei" can also be "saiko"—"highest," or in this case, "best."

What she means is that the airline Jetstar, an LCC (low-cost carrier), offers one-way flights anywhere in Japan for as little as ¥3,290.