The Tense Situation at NHK: Shocking Reasons Behind Maayuko Wakuda’s Second Pregnancy
Criticism of Aoi's "speedy return," Aoi's resignation, and rival Kuwako's future and "Kohaku" (red and white).
NHK’s ace announcer Mayuko Wakuda (35) is reportedly pregnant with her second child. While there are voices of congratulation for the celebrity announcer, there are also whispers of concern within the station.
NHK does not publicize the private lives of its employees, but it seems that she has unofficially decided to leave “News 7,” where she serves as anchor, this spring.
In February, she appeared on the program as usual, and on the 5th she reported information on heavy snowfall in various regions, but when she was standing at the beginning of the program and making an announcement, the belly part of her white one-piece dress appeared to be a little bulging. It is expected that she will give birth by summer.
Wakuda, who joined the station in 2011, was the main anchor of “Ohayo Nippon” from ’14 to ’20 and “News Watch 9” from ’20 to ’22, respectively. She is an absolute ace of the station, having hosted the “NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen” in ’19 and ’21. She is also well known for her high announcing skills and good looks, and provided flawless play-by-play coverage of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2009.
In her personal life, she married in February 2007 a trading company employee who ran in the Hakone Ekiden relay race when she was a student at Waseda University. In the summer of 2010, several media reported that they had their first child. However, the issue of her “speedy return” arose at that time.
Wakuda has never announced her pregnancy or the birth of her child, but during the spring reorganization of 2010, she left the “News Watch 9” program and had no regular appearances, effectively putting her on maternity leave. She is said to have given birth that summer, and returned to the field as an anchor of “News 7” in the spring of 2011. Although Wakuda’s appearances on the program were limited to Mondays through Thursdays, some viewers criticized her, saying that she returned too soon and that the station was overworking its ace.
Some at the station are concerned about this matter, and there is a possibility that she will be asked to take a long maternity leave following the birth of her second child. In other words, it is likely that one of the station’s signature female announcers will be out of the station for a considerable period of time.
In addition, regarding NHK’s news programs, Minoru Aoi, a newscaster of “News Watch 9,” is scheduled to leave the station on January 17 to become the anchor of Fuji Television’s news program “Live News It! a news program on Fuji Television Network, and she suddenly dropped out of the program on the same day.
