Playback ’04] “Hmph” and a snicker… Who Takako Zenba had a “Christmas date” with when she was on NHK.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In this edition of “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we bring you “Takako Zenba’s Dating Scene after Divorce” and “Ring” from the January 9 and 16, 2004 issues, 20 years ago.

Takako Zenba, 48, is currently the main anchor of “Hodo Special” (TBS), and it has been announced that she will succeed Hiroshi Sekiguchi as the anchor of “Sunday Morning” (TBS) from April. She was selected as the host of Kohaku in November 2003 while she was working for NHK. However, shortly after that, it was revealed that she had divorced a classmate from Tokyo University, whom she married in May 2001.

When this magazine asked her directly about her dating life after the divorce and her remarriage to her date, she responded in a “super-salty” manner.

The “ring” on her left ring finger.

It was a Sunday in December. Anna Zemba (28 at the time) was attending a drinking party with acquaintances in Tokyo. She was on her way home by train at around 10:30 p.m. when she started checking her e-mail on her cell phone. He seemed to have made contact with someone and started talking on his cell phone. Her face, which was in a tipsy state, suddenly lit up and she seemed to be having a good time. When she arrived at Shibuya station, she found out who she was meeting late at night on Sunday.

The man she was meeting was around 30 years old. The moment she spotted the man in the crowd, her expression suddenly softened. It is frustrating, but he is more lively than she has ever seen him before. He is a fresh, athletic type. He is tall and has broad shoulders. He must have been someone I wanted to see so badly, because he took the trouble to turn around late at night on his way home in a tipsy mood.

The two of us walked shoulder to shoulder through the streets decorated with Christmas lights. Walking slowly along the deserted streets, as if enjoying the night view, they both had big smiles on their faces, and even laughed from time to time. Before we know it, we are hand in hand, holding each other tightly. It’s still ……. So the man holding hands on a date already existed. The two disappeared into the night on the streets of Shibuya.

A few days later, this magazine witnessed an even more shocking scene. As she was returning home after work, a ring was shining on the ring finger of her left hand.

Her divorce was discovered in November. Does this mean that she has already remarried the man she was dating the other day? This magazine interviewed Anna Zemba directly. Here is a question-and-answer report from that time.

《–It’s Friday,》 …….

I can’t give you any answers unless you go through the public relations department, and I’m not going to give you any answers now. （I hope that the photo (taken just now) will not be published.

What? Why? We haven’t even heard anything yet, and yet you are still asking ……. I was a bit scared by his resolute attitude. But that cool expression is also good, isn’t it? I have to get a clue to the conversation somehow.

–I’ll try my best as the host of that “Kohaku” (red and white) …….

I’m not interested in that right now. That’s not relevant right now.

This is the most stubbornness we have ever encountered, even though we have interviewed a number of female announcers in the past. We had no choice but to back down with our tails between our legs. ……

In October 2005, Zenba married for the second time a man who also graduated from Tokyo University and worked for a major electronics manufacturer. In March 2006, she quit NHK and moved to London to live with her husband who was stationed overseas.

However, in September of the same year, Zemba signed a contract with TBS and became a subcaster of “Tetsuya Chikushi News 23,” and divorced her second husband in 2007. She then worked as the main anchor of “NEWS23” for many years, but left in March 2004 when she returned from maternity leave with her first child from her third marriage. Currently, she is the “face of news reporting” for TBS on “Hodo Tokusetsu.

Her resolute response to a direct interview with this magazine may have been a glimpse of her current role as a newscaster.