Freelance Announcer Aika Kanda: “Hikaru Ijūin, as I See Him”

Did I Cause You to Graduate!?

It’s been three and a half years since I started co-hosting the Fuji TV series *Poka Poka* alongside the two members of Haraichi.To be honest, there’s no way I could ever fill the shoes of the national phenomenon “Waratte Iitomo!,” and I don’t have the skill to liven up a live broadcast every day. I still spend my weekends worrying, “Am I really up to this…?” before facing the live show on Monday.

On those Mondays, the person who appeared as a regular guest was Hikaru Ijūin, a TV personality and radio host. Mr. Ijūin would fill in the gaps when my words fell short and no one understood what I was trying to say, acting as my spokesperson, or he’d deliver a witty retort to turn it into a laugh.

He was someone very important to me—someone I absolutely needed by my side to get through Mondays—but he stepped down from the show for the time being in July. The reason was a worsening of his chronic lower back pain. “Pokapoka,” where he had to stand for nearly two hours straight, must have put a heavy strain on his back.

I should have felt sad, but when I heard the news, I panicked, thinking, “Oh no! Maybe his departure is my fault!” That’s because a few weeks earlier, I had asked Mr. Ijūin “a certain question” that was extremely rude.

That day, I went over to where Mr. Ijuin was waiting for his segment. It was three minutes before the live broadcast. It was an inopportune time to ask a personal question, but for some reason, I was determined: “I’m going to ask him today!”

So I asked, “Mr. Ijuin, you’re so knowledgeable and a great speaker, yet on *Poka Poka*, you often stay silent until the host, Mr. Sawabe, calls on you. Doesn’t that build up stress? Why do you keep appearing on *Poka Poka*?”

On *Poka Poka*, Mr. Ijuin is always smiling, kind, and easy to approach. So, when I met him on another show for the first time after getting to know him on *Poka Poka*, I greeted him cheerfully in my usual style: “Mr. Ijuin~! Nice to meet you~!”

But then the staff members around me gave me scary looks, as if to say, “Is this girl an idiot!?” That’s when I realized, (I must have done something wrong!)

From then on, I observed Mr. Ijuin on other shows. He was always seated at the very back of the cast waiting room, with a high-ranking staff member invariably stationed right next to him. And every single co-star would rush over to greet him first… Yes, he’s a true heavyweight. He’s not the kind of person you can casually call “Mr. Ijuin~!”

Here was a powerhouse performer—someone capable of entertaining an audience for two hours all by himself—who was smiling and playing along with someone like me on *Poka Poka*. Just imagine how much stress that must have caused him. A sense of justice welled up inside me: “Someday, I have to find out what he’s really thinking and apologize as one of the MCs!” Knowing full well it was rude, I asked him that very question.

An Answer I Never Expected

Mr. Ijuin’s answer was this: “I blow off steam on the radio. That’s just the kind of place it is. When I meet people on ‘Pokapoka’—like Mr. Kanda and Genta Matsuda—whom I don’t usually get to see, I encounter ideas I’ve never had before, and I discover a side of myself I didn’t even know existed. That’s what makes it so much fun!”

I was deeply moved. (What a way of thinking! Amazing!!) The fact that he’s still growing while discovering new sides of himself—and actually finds that fun—is incredible. Plus, I was touched by the way he genuinely answered my question even when I asked at such a sudden moment; his approach to interacting with people really struck a chord with me.

What made me even happier was that when Ms. Ijūin announced her departure from “Pokapoka” on her own radio show, she said, “The one thing I’m incredibly sad about as I leave ‘Pokapoka’ is that I won’t be able to see Ms. Kanda every week.”

“Aika Kanda is just endlessly entertaining. That girl’s got a screw loose,” he said. That’s the highest possible compliment. Even though I’ve been nothing but a burden and must have caused him a lot of trouble, to hear him praise me like that… I was so happy I listened to the segment at least 30 times.

Mr. Ijūin. Thank you so much for steering us on this big ship for the past three and a half years since “Poka Poka” began. We’ll do our best to keep the show going until your back heals, so please come back.

And as for me, I’ll keep working hard to stay true to myself and not get swayed by those around me, so that Mr. Ijuin will always think of me as an interesting person!

Aika Kanda / Born in 1980 in Kanagawa Prefecture.After graduating from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, at 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 primarily in variety shows and currently appears regularly as the main MC on the daytime series “Pokapoka” (Fuji TV network).

★Her first book , *Where Does the ‘Royal Road’ Lead? * , a compilation of this series , is now on sale to great acclaim!

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