Money Tigers is the Japanese business show that originated the Dragon's Den format.
The Japanese programme, known as Money no Tora and translated into English as Money Tigers, established the basic structure later used by Dragon's Den adaptations. Entrepreneurs presented business ideas to a panel of wealthy investors and sought funding in return for a share of the venture.
The British version is therefore part of a broader international television franchise rather than an entirely original format. Different countries use different animal imagery and titles: Britain uses dragons, while several other adaptations use sharks or other creatures associated with power and investment.
The Japanese title is sometimes confused with the names of later international versions, especially Shark Tank. Those programmes share the format's ancestry but are not the original Japanese title. “Money Tigers” is the English rendering most commonly used when describing the source programme in discussions of the franchise's history.