About Ninja Warrior Ninja Warrior, "SASUKE" in Japan, is a giant obstacle course challenge that is held once or twice a year. Set in Midoriyama Studios, Yokohama, the course is filled with physical challenges that anyone from around the world has the chance to tackle.

Originally broadcast in Japan as three-hour shows each competition, Ninja Warrior can be seen in the UK on Challenge where it is shown in series' of half-hour episodes voiced-over by Stuart Hall.

There are four stages that contestants must get through to be victorious and win two million yen.

Each competition 100 contestants start off on the first stage. These 100 are chosen after an interview/audition and trial rounds for everyone who applied. Any contestant who makes it through the first stage moves onto stage two, and then stage three if they are successful again in the second stage. Stage three has no time limit. If a contestant falls in the water, or disqualifies them self in any other way, on any part of a course they are eliminated.

Any contestant who manages to get through these three stages, each getting progressively harder, is faced with stage four - the Final Stage. Only two people have ever completed final stage out of the 20 competitions there have been.

The obstacles in the first three stages are occasionally changed and swapped around. Stage four is always a tower that needs to be scaled within the time limit, but the way you must get up it changes every time there is a winner.

There are several different versions of Ninja Warrior (SASUKE). The first, and the biggest, is where men and women all compete against each other to win the two million yen, as explained above. The second version is KUNOICHI (known on Ninja Warrior as the "Women of Ninja Warrior") where only women take part, and the third is a special smaller version for children and elderly people.

Woman of Ninja Warrior (KUNOICHI):
In WONW, only women take part. So far there has been seven of these competitions.

Like the normal Ninja Warrior there are four stages, each harder than the previous. Also, like the regular competition, the contestants are competing to win two million yen if they manage to successfully complete all of the stages. Again, if anyone messes up on any part of a course or doesn't complete it in time they are knocked out of the competition.

WONW has been won three times, but each of the three times by the same person.

Children and Elderly Specials:
In these versions there is only one stage. The obstacles are pretty much the same for both versions, except for in the elderly version there were steeper inclines and treadmills, and in the children's version the contestant's parent is dropped into water if they fail.