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.”