Kanon Maejima, Announcer, Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc.

Before every broadcast of “Show Up Nightly” (a live professional baseball program), when I am told that it is one minute before the broadcast, I get into the booth all by myself, talking to myself so that the staff members don’t know I am there.

I would say to myself, “Don’t worry, I can do it. You know baseball is fun. Let’s show them how fun it is!

Like that. If I don’t do this, I feel like I’ll be swallowed up by my nervousness.

This is the fourth year that Kanon Maejima, 26, a Nippon Broadcasting System announcer, has been with the company. Currently, in addition to the aforementioned “Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. Show Up Night Play Ball” (Mondays from 5:30 p.m.), she also works on “Knights the Radio Show” (Mondays through Thursdays from 1:00 p.m., in charge of Radio Living), “Radio Magazine Joryumon” (Sundays from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), “Udo no Raji (Fridays from 15:30 to 17:10 / relay reporter), and also distributes the podcast “Chirurarelne”.

With her lively and energetic manner and 12 years of karate experience, she is often described as “active and powerful,” but in fact she has a nervous and anxious side to her. We asked her how she deals with her job as a radio announcer.

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The “traumatic” final interview at Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc.

Hanon Maejima’s habit of listening to the radio began in her childhood when she was born and raised in Gunma Prefecture. She vividly remembers it always playing in the car when she was driving to and from her karate dojo, and listening to it at home with the boom box she had bought for herself.

I remember that in my hometown, it was hard to get a signal from AM stations,” he said. So I would wander around the house looking for a signal while carrying my boom box (laughs). (Laughs.) “Here it is! I thought, “Here! I was always sitting on the floor with the boom box with the antenna extended, listening to it.

Since he was a child, he had been familiar with the world of radio. Among other things, he admired the announcer’s voice, which went from lighthearted talk to reassuring those listening in times of emergency or disaster. However.

I didn’t think I wanted to be an announcer for a long time. Even when I entered university and moved to Tokyo and started job hunting, I never thought about it. In fact, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to be in the future, so I wanted to put myself in a tough environment and improve myself first, so I participated in an internship at an IT company where I could work as an immediate asset.

As a result of successfully completing the internship, he began to consider employment in the IT industry. However, as the interview process progressed and the reality of the job became more and more apparent, he began to wonder, “Will I really regret it if I stay in this position? The more realistic the job interviews became, however, the more he began to wonder, “Will I really regret it if I don’t do this?

I began to wonder if I should just end up not challenging myself at all in something that I had always admired and thought was cool. So I decided to turn down the IT company I had been working for and pursue a career as an announcer.

However, the timing was too late and I didn’t know what I was doing, so I was really groping my way through the process. People around me would say, “Oh, you’re going to take the job now?　Are you serious? I got a lot of comments like that.

I read books and interviews with announcers, and when I found a seminar I thought I could attend, I attended it immediately. He recalls that he sent out up to five application sheets in one day.

I was almost always unsuccessful in the application process, and even if I made it to the interview stage, I was always unsuccessful. People around me laughed at me and said I would never make it.

It was at Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. that he was able to make it to the final exam. The final exam, held on the second basement floor of the company’s headquarters in Yurakucho, consisted of individual interviews with seven executives versus one.

On my entry sheet, I had written about the part-time jobs I had held, and when the interviewer saw it, he asked me, ‘I think you have used various tones of voice at different part-time jobs. He said, ‘I think I’ve used different tones for different jobs.

There was a stand microphone next to the chair I was sitting on. I had always wondered about it, but this is how you use it!　I was like, “Oh, my God, they use it like this! I thought it was an important screening to check my voice, so I took on the challenge with determination, despite the tense atmosphere.

When I was asked, “Well, I’m in the call center,” I would say, “Yes! I’m Maejima from the call center. When I am asked, “Next, corporate sales,” I respond with, “Thank you very much for your help,” with a moderate sense of distance and a friendly atmosphere. It was in this vein that I was asked to go to an izakaya (Japanese-style pub) next. I thought to myself, “This is where it’s important to have a sense of humor! I was so excited that I said, “I’m here!　Are you hungry? I tried to show a gap.

I looked at the faces of the seven people and wondered if the tension-filled atmosphere of the final interview would ease a little. Everyone’s mouths were set in a straight line and there was no change in facial expression at all. All they said was, “Thank you very much for your time at ……. Please be seated. I have no recollection of anything after that.

With a realistic tone, he recounts the day of the exam, saying that he still gets nervous when he recalls it. After the exam, she wandered around Hibiya Park in a state of stupor, unable to get even the slightest response that she had passed. Four hours had passed, and she was descending the stairs to the subway in her worn-out heels to finally return home when her cell phone rang.

It was an informal phone call. Forgetting that many people were coming and going, I said, ‘Yes! I’m looking forward to working with you! I remember shouting, “Yes!

Thanks to our listeners, I am ……

From the time he joined the company of his dreams to the present, Anna Maejima has often traveled to news coverage. Often, she would go to the scene of a disaster all by herself.

I would rush to the scene and ask the cab driver, ‘Could you please go to the scene?

In the field of news reporting, I am conscious of not just “telling” the story to the listeners, but also making sure that the story is conveyed to them.

Senior announcers such as Sayaka Masuyama and Masahiko Kamiyanagi speak very slowly and clearly without rushing, even within a limited time frame. In the earthquake early warning, they reassure us that we need to evacuate, but also reassure us that everything will be fine and that we should be careful.

Ichiyoshi Shinkyo, who has actually covered many disasters, not only thinks about what it means to “get through” to listeners, but also takes great responsibility for his own words. She also takes great responsibility for her own words. “One time, she told me, ‘Some lives can be saved by words,’ and I am still very conscious of that.

She has landed her dream job as a radio announcer, and now spends her days delivering information from the field and radio booths. Even amidst all this, there are times when she is troubled or lost.

I always had a complex about my low voice. I have been told by seniors and listeners that my voice is ‘easy to listen to’ and ‘suitable for news,’ so little by little I have come to like my voice.

However, I still get nervous easily and make mistakes easily. When it comes time to read the news, there are times when I hear my other voice saying, “You’re going to make a mistake again. When that happens, I know for sure that my throat is going to close. I haven’t gotten out of that feeling, to be honest.

Because he is painfully aware of his own challenges, he is working harder than anyone else to overcome them.

I re-listen to my programs. I always reflect on things like, “I didn’t need to use the right words here,” or “I obviously didn’t use enough words here, so the listeners wouldn’t have understood me. I want to convey to those who listen to the radio the enjoyment of the show as it was 100. I don’t want to reduce the enjoyment from 100 to 50 because of me. I may only be able to do 80, but I want to be an announcer who can deliver a broadcast that “gets through” to the listeners.

As long as I am doing my job on the air, I think I should not say things like, “This is just me,” without confidence in my work. I should be confident in my work.

However, there are listeners who listen to me, give me comments, and send me e-mails. Thanks to them, I am able to do my job as an announcer. I want to be an announcer who is able to convey that gratitude to listeners on a daily basis, and have it be “conveyed” to them.

Profile
Kanon Maejima
Born on July 25, 1996. She was born in Gunma Prefecture.
After graduating from the School of Sport Sciences at Waseda University, she became an announcer at Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. in April 2019.
His programs include “Radio Magazine, Noborimon” (Sundays 20:30-21:00), “Udo no Rajio” (Fridays 15:30-17:10 / relay reporter), “Nippon Broadcasting System Show Up Night Play Ball” (Mondays 17:30-), “Knights the Radio Show” ( (Monday-Thursday 13:00- / in charge of radio living).
He distributes the podcast “Kanon Maejima’s Chirurarelne”.
She has 12 years of karate experience and loves Pokemon more than three meals a day.

Official blog “Come on! Hanane Dojo”.
Official Twitter ( @lfkanonmaejima)

FRIDAY Subscription” (paid site) is now showing a special interview and special photos of announcer Hanon Maejima talking about her favorite “Pokemon”!