Suits' Briefcase Holds Money in Japan, Not Drugs
In the pilot of Suits, the briefcase opened during a job interview contains marijuana. In the Japanese version, it contains cash. The reason is simple: drugs cannot be shown on Japanese TV, so the writers changed the contents, according to Variety.
Suits is a format, meaning a TV idea that other countries buy and rebuild with their own actors, writers and rules. NBCUniversal Formats licenses the show. Its approach is to keep the central story intact while changing almost everything around it. Every legal case is localised for the country where it airs. The core story of a man with no law degree stays the same.
Not every change goes that far. The marijuana briefcase stayed in the Korean and Mongolian remakes, Variety reported. The Japanese version was the one that swapped the drugs for money.
The change was discussed in public at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei. Linfield Ng, vice president of format sales and production for Asia at NBCUniversal Formats, shared the stage with Fukaya Shunsuke, head of new format sales for Europe at TBS Television. Emily Chang, who heads the financial news team at Taiwan's Videoland and produces Shark Tank Taiwan, moderated the session.
Ng joined NBCUniversal in 2011, after senior roles at BBC Worldwide, Endemol Asia and Warner Bros. Pictures. Fukaya joined TBS in 2009 and spent 12 years in production before moving into format sales. Both have spent their careers on the business side of television, selling ideas across borders.
The festival runs from 6 to 9 November 2026. It is organised by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, known as TAICCA, and this is its seventh edition. The forum takes place in Hall 2 of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
Other examples from the session show how far formats can travel. NBCUniversal has made more than 25 versions of Top Chef. TBS's Sasuke, known outside Japan as Ninja Warrior, has local versions in 25 countries.
Local versions do not always keep the original content. Variety reported that the Korean version of Saturday Night Live, called SNL Korea, dropped the musical segment. The producers said Korea already has many music and countdown shows. Producers also asked to soften or skip the U.S. show's politically pointed cold open at sensitive moments.
What makes the Suits example stand out is how small the change is. A briefcase is a prop, and swapping one object for another takes little effort. Yet it shows what a format can and cannot bend. The rules of local broadcasters decide what viewers in each country actually see on screen.
