The government continues to chip away at the welfare state, reducing benefits for poor families and forcing them to find new ways of saving what little money they have. Luckily the variety show "Ikinari! Ogon Densetsu" ("Suddenly! The Legend of Money"; TV Asahi, Thurs., 7 p.m.) is always there to help.

This week, "cooking researcher" Yuki Morisaki will show viewers how to live off the food they can buy at ¥100 stores. Morisaki has devised 100 recipes that use only ingredients that can be bought in such stores. For one week, she cooks two meals a day for herself and one a day for herself and a guest, spending no more than ¥1,000 a day. Anybody can be poor, but only the clever can make it fun.

Japan's most famous plastic surgeon, Dr. Katsuya Takasu, has a reputation as an international jet-setter thanks to the TV commercials for his clinic, which feature him in exotic settings. On this week's installment of the late-night variety show "Kaikin! Bakuro Night" ("Revealed! Night of Exposure"; TV Tokyo, Thurs., 11:58 p.m.), Takasu will talk about his membership in the world's "most secret society," the Freemasons.