NHK announcer Moeki Soejima, who has jumped into the “post-Wakuda” category… The decisive factor in the station’s “all-out promotion” was “muscle exercises!
Since joining the station, she has been pushed by the station to "speed up her career" in the past.
NHK announcer Moe Soejima (Mei), 32, will become the anchor of the flagship news program “News 7” from April. She will replace Mayuko Wakuda (35), who is on maternity leave due to the pregnancy of her second child. She has jumped to the forefront of the battle among the station’s new female announcers for the “post-Wakuda” position, but it is also said that her selection was a sort of “predetermined course of action.
Soejima attended the press conference held on February 14 to announce the new anchor, and said, “To be honest, I feel a lot of responsibility and pressure, I want to deliver information using words that people can understand and that are full of blood,” she said with a serious look on her face. News 7″ is the most watched program in both household and individual viewer ratings among all the key stations, so it can be said that she has become the face of the TV station.
Currently, Wakuda and Kuwako Maho are the top two female NHK announcers. With Wakuda’s departure from News 7 this spring, there has been a lot of attention, both inside and outside the station, on the “post-Wakuda” position, and Soejima has taken her place,” said a sports newspaper desk reporter.
Soejima, a native of Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture, joined the station in 2003 after graduating from Keio University. In 2008, when she was a member of the broadcasting club at Hirosaki High School, a preparatory school, she won second place in the 55th NHK Cup National High School Broadcasting Contest, and in the spring of 2009, she hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 81st Spring National High School Baseball Tournament. She was also a host for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 81st Spring High School Baseball Tournament in the spring of 2009.
After joining NHK, she was seen as someone who would be pushed by the station from an early stage.
After joining NHK, she was assigned to Oita and Nagoya Bureaus before returning to the Tokyo Announcing Office in the spring of 2006. His three-year tour of local stations as a rookie was unusually short, the same length of time as Wakuda’s. “Upon returning to Tokyo, he was assigned to the Tokyo announcing office as a representative announcer. Upon her return to Tokyo, she was also assigned to anchor the leading sports programs “Saturday Sports” and “Sunday Sports,” and was regarded as a “fast riser” in the broadcasting industry at the time. For that reason, many people involved with NHK have reacted to her selection, saying, “Of course, that’s what will happen.
However, there was also a “decisive factor” in NHK’s decision to entrust her with this major role. Soejima has gained popularity for her short-cut, active, and beautiful looks, and she has also gained a reputation for her high level of announcing skills, speaking with a clear smile.’ Since April 2010, she has been the anchor of the morning news program “Ohayo Nippon” (Good Morning Japan), where she has also developed a new character.
