Money Tigers was the Japanese television programme that inspired the UK series Dragons' Den.
The Japanese programme, known as Money Tigers in English-language references, established the central idea of entrepreneurs pitching for finance to a panel of successful business people. The original Japanese title is マネーの虎, commonly transliterated as Manē no Tora, and the show was broadcast from 2001.
The concept travelled internationally through licensed adaptations. Britain retained the dragon imagery in its title, while the United States used the title Shark Tank. Despite different names and investor panels, these versions share the same broad structure: a pitch, questions about the business, and negotiations over investment and equity.
Money Tigers is not the name of the UK series or its American counterpart. The title Shark Tank belongs to the US adaptation, and Dragons' Den is the British title. That distinction is useful when tracing the format's origin rather than identifying a later local version.