TBS’s Kyoko Nango and TV Asahi’s Akari Matsuoka…sure to break out! The “God’s Eleven 2026”, the new generation of female announcers

Expected ″successor″.

The rush of popular female announcers leaving the company is unstoppable. Fuji Television’s ace announcers Yumi Nagashima (34) and Marino Fujimoto (30) and TBS’s Risa Unai (34) all left last year, and even NTV’s Erina Iwata (30), who was expected to become “post-Mizuto Mami,” will reportedly leave in March of this year.

Who are the candidates for the future stars of the new era at each station?　Are the youngsters being nurtured?　Here we introduce the “God’s Eleven,” the industry’s hottest hopefuls, selected by people who are well versed in the field of female TV announcers.

Many experts and TV staff are convinced that TBS announcer Anko Nango (25) will make her breakthrough this year. She was the first female announcer born in the 21st century to be ranked in the “22nd Favorite Female Announcer Ranking” announced at the end of last year (7th place).

She has already worked as an anchor and facilitator on popular programs such as “THE TIME,” and “King’s Brunch.” In 2012, he substituted for Mako Tamura (30), an Anna, on “Lavit! in 2012 as a substitute for Mako Tamura (30), she showed reactions that rivaled those of comedians in the famous “Bilibili Bili” project. He even did an impersonation of Katsumi Yamada (60), aka “Mr. SASUKE,” and left a big mark on the show.

What was most impressive was that he was able to keep the show on track without making mistakes as a stand-in while still getting laughs. It was hard to believe that he was only in his second year at the time. When she hosted a fashion event, she was talked about as being “as beautiful as a model. She is probably the most likely successor to Mako Tamura,” said Daijiro Maruyama, a female TV announcer critic.

TV Tokyo also has a long-awaited successor to the ace. This is Yo Saito. She has appeared on “Weekly Prime Online S” (BS Fuji) as a student anchor since she was a student at Keio University. She joined TV TOKYO last year with a bang. TV producer Hiromichi Chinmoku analyzes her strengths as follows.

She made her first TV appearance in July last year during a live broadcast of “TV TOKYO Music Festival 2025 – Summer. In the same month, she took over from TV TOKYO’s ace analyst Hitomi Tanaka (29) and became the fifth assistant for “Moya Moya Samasamazu 2”. The fact that Saito took over is proof that the station expects her to be “post-Tanaka Hitomi.

The difference between her and Tanaka is her low tension. However, the two “Samasazu” members are bewildered by her, and it is quite amusing. Speaking of “Sama-zu,” it is customary for the female announcers to throw in a few dirty jokes, but Saito was not able to pull it off at all. It seems as if Saito, a newcomer to the show, is rolling with the “wanderers. Of all the young announcers, he is the one I pay the most attention to.

The youngster who wowed Shinichi Hatori

After Nango and Saito, TV Asahi’s Shuri Matsuoka, 24, is the next name on the list. She is a talented young lady who made headlines when she was selected for the station’s morning show, “The Shinichi Hatori Morning Show,” from her first day on the job.

She is one of the most exposed of the younger generation, partly due to her unusually large selection. Her refreshing voice and the way she reads scripts without hesitation overlap with the image of a high street newscaster. On “Morning Show,” when co-host Toru Tamagawa (62) commented, “There are girls who like the smell of aging,” he showed that he can cross paths with the curmudgeonly, instantly tsk-tsk-ing with a dubious expression on his face.

He also has a sense of humor, such as when he commented, ‘You are a dominatrix,’ after watching a video of a dog that was happy to be exposed to sand. Shinichi Hatori (54), an announcer, is also giving his approval, saying, “She’s going to be a big star. I think she will grow up to be a unique anchor following Ayaka Hironaka (35),” said a TV Asahi insider.

Although less well-known than the other three, Nippon TV’s Moka Namiki, 24, is also being watched with keen interest as a promising young anchor. She is a socially conscious person who volunteered to deliver shoes to Indonesia when she was in high school and participated in the “PiO PARK Ambassador Project,” which aimed to revitalize local industries, when she was in college. Her strong point, according to Professor Takahiko Kageyama of Doshisha Women’s University, is her announcing ability.

She is currently a field caster for “news zero,” and her strength is her announcing ability when she is asked to broadcast live. When she was assigned to cover and relay coverage of disaster sites and the Hakone Ekiden relay race, she was able to neatly summarize the main points in a short amount of time. She never runs over time.

The viewers love to see her, a petite girl, running around hard at the relay sites.’ In 24 years, she attracted a great deal of attention for her cosplay of Ram from the popular anime “Urusei Yatsura” on “Gurunai,” saying she was “too cute. She is a talent who can be active not only in news reporting but also in variety shows.

Nika Igarashi, 23, a year Namiki’s junior, is another promising talent at Nippon TV. She is in charge of the football information program “Audrey’s NFL Club,” which has been a gateway to success at Nippon TV for such announcers as Mami Mizuto (38) and Iwata.

While the other stations are filled with graceful newcomers, Igarashi, with her gorgeous and wild atmosphere, is a unique presence. When she threw out the first pitch at the Giants-Hiroshima game last September, she wowed the audience with a no-brainer pitch, swinging her legs up in the air with great energy. When he left the stage, he even performed a gag that his co-star Toshiaki Kasuga (47) has, “Toothless. It was hard to believe that this was only his first year.

When Audrey teased him about it later on “NFL Club,” he replied, “Please don’t laugh at people who are serious,” and the studio burst into laughter. She is the first unique analyst to appear at Nippon TV in a long time.

The second part is here! The “God’s Eleven 2026” of the new era of female announcers

From the March 6, 2026 issue of FRIDAY