They are flown to Tokyo, Japan, and taken to the Toho Studios, where it is revealed that they are to compete in a Japanese game show called Majide (本気で).

For Season Two, Majide host Rome Kanda surprised each of the contestants in their hometowns informing them they were going to Japan.

The two members compete and the losing contestant is eliminated from the show, which is carried offstage and sent back to the United States by the "sayonara mob" (脱落者决定), dressed in black suits.

The series followed not only the Majide competition but also the contestants' activities backstage and outside the game show in reality style.

The host of season one was Japanese-American Tony Sano, who commented, "It's going to be like nothing American audiences have seen on network television.

The show was produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions (the producers of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares in the USA) with Arthur Smith, Kent Weed of A. Smith and Co. and Tim Cresenti of Small World International Format Television as executive producers and Weed directing, and is distributed by Disney/ABC's Greengrass Productions division.

The format was created by Danish producers Karsten Bartholin and David Sidebotham for Babyfoot ApS and was originally titled Big in Japan.

The Greek version of the show (under the original name Big In Japan) airs on Alpha TV.

A Greek version was produced by Alpha TV and began airing on February 1, 2009 with the title Big in Japan.

The Swedish version was also recorded in the Toho Studios but did not include Tony Sano, Masahiro Hurugori or Rome Kanda.

Jag är med i en japansk TV-show was Kjell Eriksson, against runner-up Klasse Möllberg.

In late November 2009, Portuguese TV station TVI aired its own version of the series called Portugal de Olhos em Bico.