Japan produced the original television format later adapted as Britain’s Dragons' Den.
The British programme was adapted from the Japanese format Money Tigers. Its central idea is simple but demanding: entrepreneurs present a business proposal to a panel of wealthy investors and seek capital in return for an ownership stake.
The format travelled widely because the pitch-and-negotiation structure can be adapted to different national business cultures. Britain used “dragons” for its investors, while the United States used “sharks” and other countries selected their own local imagery and titles.
Japan is the country of origin for the format, not the country where the British series is produced. The British version is a BBC programme made for the United Kingdom and first broadcast there in 2005.