Ex-TV Asahi Announcer Yoshie Takeuchi Reflects on Tamori’s Advice in Her New Career

Fateful encounter with coffee

“I’ve been six years out of the company, and I’ve never regretted it even once. I’m a strong tiger.”

Freelance announcer Yoshie Takeuchi (39) began with a slightly shy smile. After joining TV Asahi in 2008, she served as the 8th-generation sub-host of Music Station and as a caster for Hōdō Station SUNDAY. She left the company at the end of 2019, moved to Hamamatsu City (Shizuoka Prefecture), and while continuing her freelance work, began a second career as a coffee roaster.

In the interview, Takeuchi held a package from her own brand, renag coffee. She officially launched sales on her e-commerce site in December last year. The design features a somewhat humorous yet powerful tiger parent-and-child motif.

“I was born in the year of the Fire Tiger, and my mother used to say to me when I was little, ‘Yoshie, you’re a strong tiger’ (laughs). That phrase has always stayed in my heart. When I thought about creating a character for my brand, I decided to make this strong tiger the icon.”

Her path to becoming a roaster was inspired by a fateful cup she encountered while working as a TV announcer.

“I originally preferred tea and didn’t like black coffee. But the moment I drank specialty coffee at ‘Maruyama Coffee’ in Tokyo, it was so delicious it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Since then, it became such a part of my life that I started making it myself every day.”

She made the decision to turn it into a career after moving to Shizuoka Prefecture to join her husband for work.

“After getting married in 2019, I thought maybe it would be nice to live as a full-time housewife at first. But when I actually tried it, I realized, unfortunately, that it wasn’t for me (laughs). When I paused to think, ‘Now that the company’s name isn’t behind me, what do I really have left?’ the only thing that came to mind was coffee.”

Her days are extremely busy as she raises two children while working as a freelance announcer. She says she can devote time to coffee only late at night.

“I go to bed with my kids at 9 p.m., then wake up at 2 a.m. From then until 5 a.m., I call it my golden time (laughs). It’s only three hours, but in that quiet room with no one around, I work on website design, reply to customer emails, think about coffee beans it’s humble, isn’t it? (laughs) But the time spent doing what I love is the happiest thing.”

Once in the spotlight in a glamorous industry, Takeuchi now cherishes her three hours spent facing coffee.

In the January 16 release of FRIDAY (Jan 30–Feb 6 combined issue) and the paid edition FRIDAY GOLD, she candidly talks about her memories from the Music Station era and her ambitions for the future.

For more details and multiple photos, click here ↓

From the January 30/February 6, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”