Aoi Harada, Fuji Television’s Aoi Harada, “A series of too dynamic mispronunciations,” as seen by a TV person.

Impact as Taro Aso

Aoi Harada, 24, is a female announcer at Fuji Television Network. A former member of the popular idol group Sakurazaka 46 (formerly Keyakizaka 46), she was once known as the “intellectual queen” during her time with the group. However, she has become a “hot topic” in the TV world for a wrong answer she gave during an appearance on the October 28 broadcast of “Calling Teacher Tanaka” (Fuji TV).

On that day, 10 announcers from NHK and other key stations gathered for the program. They competed to be the “No. 1 honor student announcer” by taking a gliding test and a dictation test for difficult-to-read kanji characters, which are essential skills for announcers.

Harada was joined by Fuji senior announcer Daijiro Enonami (39) and former Fuji announcer Tomoyo Abe (61), now an employee of the news bureau. They were given a news script to read on the spot, and they failed the test.

They mispronounced “ha-da-sho” as “ha-da. He mispronounced “Chuzaijo” for “Chuzaisho,” and “Kazo-shi” for “Kasushi.

Harada’s mistakes did not stop there.

In a question about an idiom meaning “to stand on equal footing,” she answered “head” (the correct answer was “shoulder”) for the blank part of “○ in a row.

When asked to guess the famous phrase “I want to praise myself,” used by former Japanese women’s marathoner Yuko Arimori, 57, when she won the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she answered, “I’m glad I didn’t give up for the first time! The answer was “I’m glad I didn’t give up for the first time!

Immediately after the program went on the air, various comments appeared on SNS.

“Is Fuji an institution for training stupid announcers?
What’s wrong with that? This is what happens when you join a company with connections.
I know it will be tough for a while, but don’t lose your smile.
You’re good for variety.

Nantsutsu” in front of the president

When she was a member of Sakurazaka 46, she won the academic achievement test project of its flagship program, “Soko kageta, Sakurazaka? (TV Tokyo), a program that was part of Sakurazaka 46. In the test, which required a perfect score of 20 points in each subject, she scored a total of 86 points in five subjects, including 19 points in English and a perfect score of 20 points in mathematics. She also showed her strength in a quick-poll quiz with the top five students, and was crowned “Queen of Intellectuals”.

The same competition was held in the previous program “Keyaki-te, Shokunai? (same program), the group won the title for the second year in a row. With this title as a weapon, she has been a member of “Quiz Presentation Variety Q-sama! (both on TV Asahi) and “Potential Ability Test” (on Fuji TV). ……” (female announcer watcher)

In fact, Harada has “done something” in front of Fuji’s president. In March of this year, when she emceed the opening ceremony of the “Odaiba Dinosaur Expo 2024” held at the Fuji headquarters, she mispronounced the word “natsutsu” (何卒) in the script and President Koichi Minato, 72, who was in attendance, overheard her blushing.

However, the TV crew’s viewpoint was warm. The director in charge of variety at a commercial TV station said, “Harada is a member of the Sakamichi Group.

Harada is the third member of the Sakamichi Group to be an announcer at a Tokyo key station, following NTV’s Reina Ichiki (28) and TV Asahi’s Chiharu Saito (27), both former members of Nogizaka 46. Although they are given more opportunities to appear in variety shows than Ichiki and Saito, and there is a risk that their academic ability and knowledge will be exposed, Fuji seems to think that this is “delicious”. Fuji seems to think this is “delicious.” They may think it is okay to be considered a little “silly” if it makes them popular. Fans from his idol days may be annoyed, but Harada’s cheerful and vivacious personality means that as long as there are no serious scandals, he will be safe and sound.

Notoriety is better than obscurity. Fuji’s marketing strategy has succeeded for the time being.