On April 18, TV Asahi premiered a new quiz show called "Thumbs Up," hosted by Monta Mino. Until this show, Asahi was the only commercial network that hadn't hired Mino to helm a regular series, which means the gruff emcee is now approaching omnipresence. He hosts eight prime-time programs a week in addition to a Saturday morning talk show and his daily noontime job on Nippon TV's long-running housewife advice show, "Omoikkiri TV," not to mention the half-dozen specials he appears in every season.

Mino-ization means more than simply seeing Monta's mug every night. It means that Mino's peculiar blend of warmth, tough love and patronizing banter has become inextricably associated with a certain kind of programming. He cultivated this style on "Omoikkiri," mainly in the call-in segment when anonymous housewives phoned him and complained about bossy mothers-in-laws, errant husbands and ungrateful children.

Unlike a lot of Japanese TV stars, Mino wasn't an overnight sensation. He started out, as many TV announcers of his generation did, in radio in the early '70s. But since his employer, Bunka Hoso, did not have a television affiliate, he wasn't automatically promoted to the small screen. When he did finally make it to TV, he remained as a voice, best remembered as the wisecracking voiceover-narrator of the seasonal baseball bloopers specials.