“What Hikaru Ijuin Is Really Like” — Aika Kanda Shares Her Perspective

“Did he leave the show because of me?!”

It has been three and a half years since the Fuji TV program “Pokapoka,” which I co-host with the two members of Haraiichi, began. To be honest, there’s no way I could fill the shoes of the legendary national TV program “Waratte Iitomo!,” nor do I have the skill to keep a live broadcast lively every single day. Even now, I spend my weekends worrying, “Am I really okay for this?” before heading into Monday’s live broadcast.

The person who appeared as a regular Monday cast member was talent and radio personality Hikaru Ijuin. Ijuin-san would often add words to my comments when I failed to express myself clearly, essentially speaking for me, or turn my remarks into laughs with his quick-witted retorts.

He is someone very important to me, someone I absolutely needed in order to get through Mondays. But in July, he temporarily graduated from the show. The reason was that his chronic lower back pain had worsened. Spending nearly two hours standing during “Pokapoka” must have placed a considerable strain on his back.

I should have simply felt sad about it, but when I heard the news, I panicked, thinking, “Oh no! Maybe he left because of me!” The reason was that just a few weeks earlier, I had asked Ijuin-san an extremely rude question.

That day, I went over to where Ijuin-san was waiting for his appearance. It was three minutes before we went live. It was an incredibly inappropriate time to ask such a personal question, but for some reason, I was determined: “I’m going to ask him today!”

So I said, “Ijuin-san, you’re knowledgeable and a great speaker, but on ‘Pokapoka,’ you often stay quiet until the host, Sawabe-san, calls on you, right? Doesn’t that get stressful? Why do you continue appearing on ‘Pokapoka?’”

On “Pokapoka,” Ijuin-san is always smiling, kind, and easy to approach. So, after I started seeing him on “Pokapoka,” the first time I encountered him on another program, I greeted him in my usual cheerful manner: “Ijuin-saaan! It’s great to work with you!”

The staff around us immediately gave me such frightening looks that it was as if they were saying, “Is this person an idiot?!” That was when I realized, “Apparently, I’ve made some kind of mistake!”

After that, I began observing Ijuin-san on other programs. He was always seated at the very back of the talent waiting room, with an important senior staff member invariably sitting beside him. Every other performer would go straight over to greet him first. In other words, he was a genuine veteran of the industry. He was not someone you could casually call out to with a cheerful, “Ijuin-saaan!”

Someone capable of entertaining an audience by talking alone for two hours would smile and graciously support someone like me on “Pokapoka.” I wondered how stressful that must be for him. I felt a sense of responsibility, thinking, “Someday, I have to ask him how he really feels and apologize to him as one of the MCs.” That sense of justice was what led me to ask him that question, despite knowing how rude it was.

An answer I never expected

Ijuin-san’s answer was this: “I let off steam on the radio. That’s what that place is for. When I meet people like you and Genta Matsuda on ‘Pokapoka’—people I don’t normally get to meet—I encounter ideas that I’ve never had before. It’s fun because I get to discover a side of myself that I didn’t even know existed!”

I was deeply moved. “What an incredible way of thinking!” He continues to grow while discovering new sides of himself, and he can actually enjoy that process. I was also struck by the way he approaches people—he gave me a sincere answer even though I had asked him at such an awkward time.

To make things even better, when Ijuin-san announced on his own radio program that he would be leaving ‘Pokapoka,’ he said, “The thing I’m going to be most disappointed about when I leave ‘Pokapoka’ is that I won’t get to see Kanda-san every week.”

He also said, “Kanda Aika is so ridiculously interesting. There’s something wrong with that girl’s screws.”

That was the ultimate compliment. Even though I must have caused him plenty of trouble and made things difficult for him at times, he praised me so highly. I was so happy that I listened to it at least 30 times.

Ijuin-san, thank you so much for carrying us aboard that big ship for three and a half years since “Pokapoka” began. I’ll work hard to keep the show going until your back gets better, so please come back again.

And from now on, I’ll continue doing my best without letting myself be influenced by those around me, so that Ijuin-san will always think of me as an interesting person!

Aika Kanda was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science at Gakushuin University, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 and became a freelance announcer. Since then, she has primarily appeared on variety programs and currently serves as a regular main MC on the daytime program “Pokapoka” on Fuji TV.

★ Her first book, “Where Does the Road Called The Mainstream Go?,” which compiles this series, is now on sale to great acclaim!

From the August 21 & 28, 2026, combined issue of “FRIDAY”