Key Takeaway:
The Japanese show “Money Tigers” revolutionized global startup culture by introducing a risk-averse economic culture to entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to wealthy angel investors. This format, inspired by “Dragons’ Den” and “Shark Tank,” has sparked 50 adaptations worldwide, with over $1 billion in investments reported by 2024.
Before the global success of Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank, a groundbreaking Japanese show laid the foundation for entrepreneurial television. In 2001, Manē no Tora (Money Tigers) debuted in Japan, offering a revolutionary format: entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to wealthy angel investors. While its original aim was to shift Japan’s traditionally risk-averse economic culture, it ignited a global trend, now spanning 50 adaptations worldwide.
Set against Japan’s “Lost Decade” of the 1990s, the show emerged as part of broader efforts to rejuvenate the nation’s economy. Policymakers sought to promote startups as agile vehicles for job creation, innovation, and global competitiveness. Initiatives such as tax incentives for angel investors and American-style stock options supported this push, but cultural barriers to risk-taking persisted. Money Tigers tackled these cultural norms, glamorising entrepreneurship and sparking dinner-table conversations across Japan.
With its gripping format, where aspiring entrepreneurs pitched to skeptical “tigers,” the show turned business jargon like “equity” and “valuation” into mainstream vocabulary. By portraying both triumphs and failures, it chipped away at societal stigmas around failure and ambition, especially among younger viewers. Entrepreneurs were often celebrated for their courage, regardless of investment outcomes.
Though Money Tigers ran for just a few seasons, its influence was transformative. The format inspired Dragons’ Den in the UK (2005) and Shark Tank in the US (2009). By 2024, Nippon TV reported over $1 billion in investments globally from these adaptations, cementing its legacy.
The show’s success also reflects Japan’s strategic response to the “Galapagos Syndrome”—innovating domestically but struggling to export ideas globally. While Money Tigers excelled abroad, its roots as a government-backed effort to reshape Japanese economic culture often went unnoticed, with viewers assuming its international adaptations were organic to their markets. However, its origins reveal a deliberate, state-driven effort to normalise entrepreneurship in Japan and beyond.
