Hikari Ota's If I Were Prime Minister... Secretary Tanaka

The show, starring the owarai duo Bakushō Mondai started out as a special presentation on October 15, 2005, and has been broadcast during prime-time on Fridays since April 7, 2006.

Hikari Ōta, who is a comedian, usually takes the position of Prime Minister, and puts forth to the assembled guests a manifesto, generally of a very radical, sometimes even ridiculous nature.

That being said, many of his manifestos deal with extremely important and difficult national and international issues, and though the tone of the show may be light with jokes and taunts being thrown around without consequence, the discussions are often very serious, and tears and lost tempers are not rare.

About a third of the guests are usually members (occasionally leaders) of major Japanese political parties, and the rest are usually a mix of famous tarento and prominent foreign personalities.

[1] Ōta reportedly will not touch upon certain topics, namely the imperial family and North Korea, because of the complex nature of the issues and a general lack of public understanding.