Lunch ON!

A survey shows that a Japanese salaried worker spends 510 yen on average for lunch, 30% less than the average 20 years ago. It's no wonder the 500 yen "one-coin" lunch has become so popular. We go to Sendai City and step into the kitchens of restaurants to examine the hard work and ingenuity that makes it possible to serve one-coin lunches. The second half of this episode takes place in a gigantic district heating and cooling center situated beneath the high-rise city of west Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The Shintencho Shopping Street in Fukuoka has an employee cafeteria to serve its hard workers. We'll take a peek at the delicious lunches of the workers who try to liven up the shopping street amidst the intensifying competition against large retailers. We have also "Onigiri from Different Seasons and Regions," in which we look at various onigiri rice balls across Japan. This time we'll get a taste of an onigiri rice ball made with the first nori seaweed of the year, picked from the Ariake Sea.

Groups from France and the US come to observe how the Japanese bullet train cleaning crew gets to work. In just 7 minutes, the crew cleans the entire train, and sends it off right on schedule. The secret to the superb teamwork making such a feat possible is the lunch they have! --In"Face-to-Face Lunch", we hear out working people by having lunch with them. --In Kyoto we visit a Japanese pickle shop run by a family spanning 3 generations. Let's take a peek at what they have for lunch!

In "Get in line for lunch", we take a close look into the excitement people are feeling as they wait in line to have lunch. In "Everybody's Lunch ON!", where we look at messages sent in from viewers, we visit a laundry in Tokyo. The employees look forward to lunch every day, and there's a good reason why. We also look at the lunch of a man who knows all the roads--he is a field researcher for car navigation systems.

450 meters up the TOKYO SKYTREE, Tokyo's latest landmark, is the TEMBO GALLERIA. This time, we look into the inspirational lunch loved by the composer who designed its unique acoustic environment. In the second half, we visit the world-famous fish market in Tsukiji and the Korean town in Shin-Okubo to take a look at the delicious lunches of working people.

Staff members at Okinawa's professional soccer club, FC Ryuku, had long thought hard about how they could best provide a nutritious lunch to its players on the tight budget. What is the bento they ended up choosing!? --In "Face-to-Face Lunch", we find out what a manager at an electronics appliance manufacturer loves to do when he's not working! --In "Let's Go See a Bento", we visit a doll-crafting shop in Iwatsuki, Saitama Prefecture. There, we take a look at what the skilled craftsmen eat for lunch!

A Tokyo company makes and sells 60,000 bento lunches every day. All employees eat the same bento that the customers are eating. Doing this encourages employees to talk about their product with each other, and come up with new ideas. We visited them during lunch time! In "Face-to-Face Lunch", we sat down with a woman who works as a manager for an IT company. In the 2nd half of the program, we take a look at the bento lunches of professional wind instrument repairmen.

We visited a young woman who works as a dental hygienist at a research center in Tokyo and found out that the secret to her good oral health was in the lunch she eats! In Japan, April is the month that kicks off the fiscal year. In the 2nd half, Lunch ON! has fresh recruits across the nation to film their first lunch on the job!

We visit a very busy theatre company that is always performing musicals all over Japan. With around 600 actors to feed, its cafeteria is busy too. We find out that the cafeteria has a unique system! We also go to Hamamatsu City to visit areas that have delicious names. Let's see what the residents at such tasty places do for lunch!

The JICA Tokyo International Center's cafeteria serves people from 140 different nations. Its head chef uses a variety of ingredients and goes out of his way to think of new dishes to serve. We find out what he eats for lunch. Mt. Hakodate of Hokkaido boasts a spectacular view of the port town at its foot. Day and night, its ropeway leads countless tourists uphill for the magnificent sight. We visit the people who operate the ropeway, and check out what they have for lunch!

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Helicopter Rescue Squadron uses the air-sea rescue aircraft to rescue and transport people in emergency situations. We fly with the men to see what they're having in the air! We tag along with a foodstuff salesman as he negotiates to have his products put on the end-aisle display of a supermarket. We find the key to his success in his lunch.

The "mother" of the employee cafeteria at a mega furniture shop can improvise dishes with whatever ingredients that come her way! In "Let's go see a bento", Satoru Abe visits a team of motorcycle policewomen. As the women need strength and have to train with motorcycles weighing 300 kg, they must eat properly.

Many Tokyo-based IT firms are putting up satellite offices in Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture. The influx of workers from big cities like Tokyo is rapidly changing lunch in the small town. Fishermen use the traditional Okinawan fishing technique to catch Gurukun, the locally popular fish. For lunch, they eat manly rice balls on their boat. And their side dish is -of course- fresh fish!

A designer in the gaming industry packs unique, visually-artistic Bento for himself every day. He shows his work to his colleagues, and enjoys hearing their opinion. We watch him as he makes a Bento like no other! Thanks to their Bentos, landscapers in Osaka are able to create a beautiful Japanese garden during the steaming hot summer.

This episode is a special on Mount Fuji. For 2 months during summer, 10 workers take shifts working at the shrine on Mount Fuji's summit. What do the workers at the shrine above the clouds have for lunch? Also we focus on the bulldozer which is essential on Mount Fuji, as it delivers food and other supplies to the cabins on the great mountain. Let's look at the stamina-boosting bento the bulldozer drivers eat!

We visit the construction site of a 52-story skyscraper in Toranomon, Tokyo. What does the crane operator who works 260 meters above ground always have for lunch? Enjoy the heart-warming story behind the bento eaten by those who work with horses on Mount Fuji's 5th station.

Asakusa welcomes 4 million tourists each year. We find the lunches of the people who work in the popular tourist spot. A rickshaw man who is pursuing his dream to become a lawyer sits at a table to have lunch with experienced rickshaw men, as he learns valuable lessons on life. For lunch, the 78-year-old attendant of an established tempura shop has an exquisite bowl of mixed-tempura on rice, made by his life-long friend.

A man who works in Shinbashi, Tokyo is an authority on standing soba noodle shops. With more than 1,400 shops visited, he knows exactly how to tell if a shop serves good dishes or not, and he gives us a lesson on the subject. Photographer Satoru Abe visits an umbrella factory in Chiba Prefecture. The factory produces innovative umbrellas to compete with cheap, imported products. We take a look at the delicious, home-made bentos eaten by the factory employees.