The show as been around forever. We watched all the time when I was in Okinawa in the late 80's and they eventually came to Oki so a buddy of mine got to compete.
They came over to his house before hand (he's fluent in Japanese and Imy bar talk was decent) and did an interview with all of us, drinking and toasting beer.

It was a blast. He made it through the first couple of rounds and got knocked out.
Laters,
TITAN