TV Tokyo has had seven female announcers leave the company in four years.

The “rush” of female announcers leaving TV Tokyo continues.

It was reported in February that Yuki Matsumaru, 42, an announcer who appeared on the variety shows “Godtan” and “Sinapshu,” has decided to leave the company at the end of June and is planning to work as a freelance announcer after July.

Also in the same month, she hosted “Winning Horse Racing” and worked as an assistant for “Admachi Tengoku! In the same month, it was also reported that announcer Seika Suguro (39), who had been the host of “Winning Horse Race” and an assistant on “Admachi Tengoku” would also be leaving the company at the end of June, and would then work as a freelance announcer.

Noriko Fukuda, 33, who joined the station in 2004 and served as the third assistant for the comedy duo “Moya Moya Samasasu 2” from that year, updated her Instagram on March 9 to announce her departure at the end of that month. She appeared as a guest on the same program broadcast on the same day and revealed that she had changed her job to public relations for a medical venture company and would work as a freelance announcer and publicist from now on.

TV TOKYO’s announcers, both male and female, have been experiencing a “rush of departures,” but especially since the spring of 2008, there has been a noticeable number of female announcers leaving the company. Reina Sumi (33) left in March 2008, Tomoko Morimoto (46) in May 2009, Reina Akimoto (38) in June 2009, and Kasumi Mori (28) in March 2009. And at this point this year, three have left the company.

The high pace of seven departures in four years, and the fact that they did not originally hire female announcers every year, now only Akane Katabuchi (30), who joined the company in 2004, is junior to Eri Kano (37), who joined in ’09. In other words, this is an unusual situation for a TV station in that there are only veterans and young people left,” said a reporter in charge of broadcasting.

Of those who left, Sumi and Mori are active as TV personalities and have demonstrated their abilities to a great extent. This makes me think that TV TOKYO’s inability to make good use of the other announcers who left the station may have been a factor in their departure.

TV TOKYO is the only Tokyo-based key station that has never had a full-time employee as its president, and it is in effect under Nikkei’s “control. The program that has long reigned supreme within the station is “World Business Satellite,” for which Yuka Aiuchi, 38, will become the new anchor starting in May.

Except for her new position as anchor, there are almost no other “star programs,” and the female TV announcers are not motivated. No matter how hard they work on variety shows, they are not appreciated by the station’s upper management.

TV TOKYO has always been short on personnel and budget in addition to other stations, so the production side has had to use its head. This is said to have led to the creation of projects such as “Godtan,” “Urero☆Series,” and “Here and There Audrey” that threatened the commercial key stations, but even excellent employees such as Nobuyuki Sakuma (48), now a freelance producer and TV personality, who worked on such programs, have left the company. However, even excellent employees like Nobuyuki Sakuma, 48, who worked on such programs but is now a freelance producer and TV personality, have left.

He said, “Budget and manpower have been cut, and in addition, we have to keep in mind that we have to make discoveries for our sponsors and create safe programs according to Nikkei’s wishes, so the degree of freedom in creating programs is decreasing year by year. If this happens, it is likely that there will be even fewer opportunities for female TV announcers to play an active role, and I suspect that there will still be a string of departures.

There are an increasing number of announcers who are choosing to go freelance, saying, “I would rather continue to be active in a wide range of fields as a freelancer rather than build a career as an employee,” and this may be even more pronounced at TV TOKYO.

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