Nippon TV, Japan’s leading multiplatform entertainment powerhouse, has announced that Gyokuro Studio, the company’s in-house production studio dedicated to developing unscripted content for global audiences, is launching two new formats: Fake City and The Kitchen Trust(number of episodes and running times are adjustable to local scheduling or adaptations). The announcement was made by Ken Akiyama, Head of Gyokuro Studio, Nippon TV.
Since its launch in June 2025, Gyokuro Studio has built a slate of game show, culinary, reality, dating and comedy formats. Following the MIPCOM 2026 debut of Ultra Mission, Love on the Menu and Never Look Back, the studio now adds a game show and a high-stakes culinary competition, both piloted on Nippon TV in March 2026.
“Both formats are built on universal experiences that resonate with audiences around the world. Every town has streets that its residents believe they know by heart, and every food culture has chefs who rely on the people who fish, hunt and farm for them. Our partners can bring their own cities, their own ingredients and their own stars, while the mechanics stay exactly the same. That is what we mean by formats that travel,” said Ken Akiyama, Head of Gyokuro Studio.
The first new format, Fake City, asks one simple question: if parts of your city changed overnight, would you notice? Celebrity contestants spend a day getting to know a real town, unaware that a team of Fakers will secretly alter it while they sleep. Using skills in special-effects makeup and film set construction, the Fakers create changes designed to hide in plain sight. The next morning, the celebrities race to spot every change before sunset, with each discovery revealing how the Fakers pulled it off. It is a giant game of Spot the Difference, with an entire city as the game board.
The second new format, The Kitchen Trust, is a high-stakes culinary competition built on the bond between elite chefs and their longtime Providers, such as legendary fishers, hunters and farmers. A theme ingredient is revealed on the spot. The chef has just 15 seconds to plan a dish and a single 30-second phone call to place the order. Then all communication is severed for 72 hours, as the Provider risks everything in the wild to secure the ingredient. Failure to deliver on time means immediate disqualification. Once the ingredient arrives, the chef cooks the final dish, and teams are judged on both the quality of the raw ingredient and the chef’s technique.
