Maho Kuwako and Mayuko Wakuda, NHK’s “two-top” Female Announcers, Omitted as Hostesses for the 74th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen

The hostesses for the 74th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Singing Contest) have been announced for this year’s New Year’s Eve, and the absence of NHK’s ace announcers Maho Kuwako (36) and Mayuko Wakuda (34) has become a topic of discussion. One of them had hosted Kohaku for the past six years until last year, but it seems that there are various “reasons” behind the omission of the “two-top” female announcers.

“On October 6, NHK announced that TV personality Hiroyuki Ariyoshi, actress Kanna Hashimoto, actress Minami Hamabe, and announcer Kozo Takase would serve as Kohaku hosts. Incidentally, in 2009, the “host of the red group,” “host of the white group,” and “general host” were abolished, and all the names were unified into the “host” title. Hashimoto is hosting the festival for the second year in a row, but the other three are hosting for the first time, so the selection of the hostesses seemed fresh. However, not only were there no female announcers, but Kuwako and Wakuda, whose presence had become a regular occurrence, were not included, leading some people on the Internet to ask, “Why?”” (A reporter from a sports newspaper).

 

Looking back, in the past 10 years, with the exception of 2016, NHK’s signature female announcers have been one of the hosts of Kohaku. From 2012 to 2015, Yumiko Arido, the absolute ace of the time, was in charge consecutively. Kuwako and Wakuda entered the era of NHK’s signature female announcers in 2017, 2018, 2010, and 2022, while Wakuda took over in 2019 and 2021. 

“In recent years, there has been an unspoken rule at NHK that the female announcer hosting the Kohaku is also the “face” of the station at that time. Of course, this year’s host, Takase, has been a news program anchor and is currently the narrator of the TV series “Boogie Woogie”. However, the absence of a popular and glamorous female announcer on a national year-end festive program makes me feel a little sad.”

 

What is the background to this? First of all, Kuwako is said to be making efforts to create a happy family with actor Yukiyoshi Ozawa (49), to whom she remarried in September 2021.

“Kuwako divorced Fuji Television’s Shinichi Tanioka in June 2018 after only about a year. That is why she has strong feelings for her married life with Ozawa, and it is believed that they are seriously considering having a child two years after their marriage. In other words, she could go on maternity leave at any time. I think the station also understood this situation and decided not to have her take on the hard job of hosting Kohaku this year, which is filled with pressure right up to the actual event and a strange sense of tension on the day of the event.”

In fact, Kuwako’s only regular TV program is currently “Close-Up Today,” a news program she has been anchoring since last April. Moreover, the program airs only three days a week, Monday through Wednesday.

“On the other hand, Kuwako was a favorite of former chairman Terunobu Maeda, who stepped down in January, and there was a view within the station that she would not be chosen as the host this year. Also, in the past Kohaku, she made the fatal mistake of mistakenly saying ‘the red team had the winning flag’ when the white team had won.”

 

What about Wakuda? Although not publicly announced, she is said to have given birth to her first child last summer with a trading company employee, a former Hakone Ekiden athlete, whom she married in February 2019. She was on maternity leave after her regular TV program was canceled last spring, but she made a “speedy return” as a Monday-Thursday anchor of “News 7” from April this year.

NHK decided to have Wakuda resume her work as the “face of the night” on its flagship news program because of her outstanding stability, ability, and popularity, but viewers criticized the timing of her return, saying that it was too soon.

However, viewers criticized the timing of her return, saying that it was too early. “Although NHK would like to use Wakuda as Kohaku host, there is a possibility that she will be criticized even more for taking on this major role while she is busy raising her child. In consideration of the fact that she has just given birth, she has taken care to appear on “News 7” four times a week, one day less than usual. However, it is believed that they could not ask her to host Kohaku, which is a job that places an unusual amount of stress on a mother who is also raising a child, out of consideration for public opinion.”

 

Kuwako, who joined the company in 2010, is one year senior to Wakuda. Risa Hayashida, 33, who joined the company in 2014, is currently the anchor of “News Watch 9” and is gaining popularity close to the two with her healing beauty. There were reports floating around that she would be selected for this year’s Kohaku, but that never happened. Will the slot for an “ace female announcer” to host next year’s Kohaku be restored?