The Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) entertainment programme SASUKE, which gained popularity around the globe since its first broadcast 17 years ago,  is about to expand further internationally. A large-scale international SASUKE event tentatively named the SASUKE ASEAN Open Cup 2013, will be held late November this year at Stadium Kelana Jaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

With the Malaysian government strongly supporting SASUKE, plans call for athletes to be invited from Indonesia, Thailand and eight other ASEAN countries. The SASUKE ASEAN Open Cup 2013 competition is timed to coincide with the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Sports also to be held in the Malaysian capital in the same period.

Endorsed by the ASEAN Secretariat and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as part of the celebration of the 40th year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, the event is designed to broaden and strengthen contacts in the region beyond the politic and economic spheres through an engagement with SASUKE shared by people throughout the region.

With SASUKE already on the air in 157 countries and territories, the first regional production of the format took place in Malaysia in 2011, followed by Singapore in 2012. Since it first went on the air in 1997, SASUKE has been one of TBS’s leading shows, and has often featured in special New Year holiday programming. Last summer it became the first video graphic content originating from Japan to broadcast in prime time in the U.S., airing simultaneously on NBC and the G4 cable networks. With a European SASUKE production recently announced, SASUKE is now produced locally in North America, Europe, and now at the Asian regional levels, taking the show to a new level of international success.