Freelance Announcer Aika Kanda Faces Fourth Year Challenges on Fuji TV’s Poka Poka

A frightening lesson

Around the time I graduated from university, I gradually began to feel a sense of fear toward women. That feeling became firmly established in my early 30s, and ever since, I have repeatedly told myself, “Women are scary. I can’t speak my true feelings. I’ll be the one who gets hurt.”

What exactly happened? I’ll try to write about the events that caused this, as much as possible.

The first was when I was a fourth-year university student. I went abroad for a graduation trip with a girl from the same department whom I believed was my best friend. We had traveled together several times before, and each time I, being the planner, took the lead in researching everything. But that time I was busy, so I thought, “We can figure things out together once we get there.” However, on the second day, she snapped at me: “Why didn’t you look anything up!? Then there’s no point in coming with you! I came with you because you’d plan everything!” I was so shocked that my mind went blank.

After graduation, she said she would have her wedding overseas, and I told her, “I’ll pay my own way, so please invite me!” But no invitation ever came. Only then was I able to accept how she truly felt about me, and I began to think, “A woman’s smile isn’t genuine.”

The next experience was at NHK. I encountered a female senior colleague who would ignore my greetings but greet those above her in rank. Regarding a job that had been offered to me, she went out of her way to say, “That’s a job anyone can do. I wouldn’t bother doing it.” Yet for some reason, she bought clothes and shoes almost identical to mine and came to work wearing them. My colleagues analyzed her behavior as jealousy toward Kanda. I couldn’t understand what such a capable senior could be jealous of, but I came to believe that women are prone to jealousy.

Then, when I was leaving NHK. A colleague I trusted the most—someone I had gone shopping and eaten with—called out to me. I thought she would encourage me by saying, “Good luck even after going freelance!” Instead, she said, “Why are you quitting? The producer said, ‘Kanda won’t get any work even if she goes freelance.’” I was taken aback and could only reply, “I see, I’ll do my best.” Why would someone deliberately pass on something negative said by another person? Incidentally, two months after I went freelance, she contacted me again: “An acquaintance is holding an event and is looking for a freelance announcer to MC. How much do you charge?” I told her to ask my manager and gave her the contact details, but there has been no inquiry to this day. I came to believe that women can change the way they treat others based on certain triggers.

Why would someone say such things?

Then, after I went freelance. I had been chosen as the MC for a certain program, and since it hadn’t been announced yet, I hadn’t told anyone. Around that time, I went out to eat with a colleague from the same agency. Just as we finished our appetizers, she suddenly said, “That show called ○○—apparently it’s not very rewarding since you just read from cue cards… Oh wait!? Could it be that Aika-chan is going to be in charge of it!? Oh, sorry! Don’t worry about it!”—all in one breath.

I was so surprised that I froze. (How does she know I’m in charge? And why would she say that? What is she doing to me right now!?) My head filled with questions, and all I could do was lie and say, “I’m not really sure yet.” Later, I casually asked my manager and found out that both she and I had been considered candidates for the role, and in the end, I was selected. (Did she invite me to dinner just to say that!?) I realized just how cunning and calculated some intelligent women can be.

There are at least five more incidents like this. Maybe I’m the one at fault. But the fear of women that has built up over many years is deeply rooted, and now it’s starting to affect my work.

It has been four years since Poka Poka began. Every day, I ask my own questions to guests of various ages and fields, listening to their experiences and thoughts. I truly enjoy it. However, on days when the guest is a woman, my past experiences get in the way, and I find myself unable to ask questions that really get close to them.

If my performance varies from day to day, I can’t call myself a professional, and it’s unfair to the program. It’s about time I overcome this fear of women. “To continue asking questions of the same quality to any guest without hesitation”—that is my goal in the fourth year of Poka Poka.

Aika Kanda / Born in 1980 in Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Gakushuin University, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 to become a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active mainly in variety programs and is currently a regular main MC on the daytime show Poka Poka (Fuji TV).

★ Her first book compiling this series, Where Does the So-Called Royal Road Lead?, is now on sale and receiving great reviews!

From “FRIDAY”, April 10, 2026 issue.