Fading out without returning to the show…Erina Arai’s “Good! Morning” maternity leave and the furore over her departure from the show….

Arai announced on her social networking service that she will no longer be the MC of “Good! Morning” (TV Asahi), which she has run for eight years, announced on her SNS. She had been on maternity leave since June, but faded out without returning to the program.

In response to this, some on the Internet lamented her demotion, while others responded, “She’s going away without a greeting? Some people also criticized her “flying” response, reporting on her own SNS before making an official announcement on the program, and some even asked her if she would be leaving without a greeting. (TV Tokyo) in April was also controversial.

However, a person involved in the “Good! Morning” program, however, believes that “the TV station’s inadequacies are to blame for the uproar that has grown to this point.

Before she went on maternity leave, there was a party to reflect on the situation and to thank her for her hard work, but when Ms. Arai stood up to greet the staff, she burst into tears. She is usually a cool person, but it was very impressive to see her so moved. Seeing that, we realized that she was going to leave the board.

That is why I feel uncomfortable with the expression, “She left the board without saying goodbye. I think the decision to drop the project was made by the board members and even higher up, Chairman Hiroshi Hayakawa (80), rather than Mr. Arai’s intention. As for casting, we are in an era where even the producers on the spot no longer know anything about it. ……”

Arai explained the reason for her departure on her SNS page, saying, “Rather than returning halfway, I would like to explore a new way of working on my own. A source close to the show continued, “It is difficult to continue with a morning information program when you consider raising a child.

Good! Morning’ comes on at around 2:30 in the morning, and you are tied up for six to seven hours. I am sure that Ms. Arai was more acutely aware than anyone else of the difficulty of balancing work with child rearing. The biggest problem is that even in the age of Reiwa, TV stations, which are very strict about compliance, still follow the bad habit of the Showa period of “maternity leave is an instant demotion from the board. Ms. Arai is a person who has done a lot of work, so everyone has their own opinions.

Another TV Asahi official continued.

When Noriyuki Higashiyama (57) announced at a press conference that he was leaving “Sunday LIVE! at a press conference, the producers of the show were completely unaware of it and rolled their eyes. The discretionary power of the front line is shrinking every year, and what is worse is the attitude of “not wanting to take risks” at the core of the upper management. Mr. Arai’s hasty report on SNS may have been motivated in part by his anger at the station’s lackadaisical response.

Some reports claimed that Arai was harsh with the ADs and other young staff members during the recent turmoil. However, a TV Asahi official denied the allegations and continued, “Mr. Arai is a very unusual person nowadays.

Mr. Arai is a person with a sense of normality, which is rare these days. He is also a hardworking person. In the first place, people whose personalities are troublesome or who are incapable of doing their jobs cannot be used as MCs for information programs. The fact that she was able to continue to do so for eight years speaks volumes about her work ethic.

The station could have taken a different approach, for example, by assigning her only one corner and waiting for the timing of her full-fledged return to ……. The TV station needs to change its mindset that the only option they can offer her is to “drop her if she can’t continue to work the same way she has been doing. This is even more so if they claim to be a workplace where women can flourish.

Will the time ever come when TV workers can return to work after marriage or pregnancy, as they hope?