Popular boy band Tokio is on an economic kick this week. On the Oct. 3 installment of their weekly Nihon TV show "Tetsuwan Dash," three members are dropped off in Zurich, Switzerland. Each armed with only 10,000 yen in cash, they have to see how far that money can take them.
This formula is repeated more ambitiously later in the week when all five members are featured in a two-hour special, "Around the World! Dream and Romance and Money" (TBS, Tue., 9 p.m.). Again, each member is given 10,000 yen, but this time they have to find out how much 10,000 yen will buy in different countries, which they visit in person.
Shigeru Joshima takes "land" as his theme. He wants to know how much land 10,000 yen will buy in various places in the world. Tatsuya Yamaguchi tackles the "food" theme in the usual way, by seeing how much you can eat with 10,000 yen in various countries. Masahiro Matsuoka researches "work": how much labor will 10,000 yen buy? Meanwhile, Taishi Kokubun goes to the Philippines to see how far 10,000 yen will get him in the country's cheapest taxi.