is a Japanese announcer and

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

for

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

. Wakuda previously is one of the anchors hosting

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its co ...

's primetime news program ''

News Watch 9 is the flagship evening news program of the public Japanese broadcaster, NHK. It airs weekdays on NHK general television and worldwide on NHK World Premium and is also available on the networks video-on-demand service. As of 2025, it is presente ...

''.

Early years

Wakuda was born in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. At age two, she moved with her family to

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. She returned to Japan when she was five years old, and was raised in Kawasaki and

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

. Wakuda attended Joshigakuin Junior & Senior High School in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, graduating in 2007, where she belonged to a performing arts club and played straight plays and musicals in English language. She then went to

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, one of Japan's most prestigious universities, from which she received the BEc degree in March 2011. As an undergraduate, she was a manager and trainer of the university's men's lacrosse club.

Career

After graduating from University of Tokyo in 2011, Wakuda was hired by NHK. Several months later she was sent to NHK Okayama Branch where she started her career as a broadcaster. In April 2014, Wakuda was relocated to Tokyo Announcement Room and appointed to a weekend & holiday newscaster of the morning news show ''

NHK News Ohayō Nippon ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon'' (, ) is a Japanese morning television show on NHK General TV, anchored mainly by Masatomo Takai and Kana Nakayama, from the NHK studios at NHK Broadcasting Center in Tokyo, Japan. It debuted in April 1993 replacing '' ...

''. One year later she became a weekday anchor of the show, starring every weekday from 6:00 am to 8:00 am JST. On January 17, 2015, Wakuda was reporting from

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

, Japan, which the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake hit on that day 20 years before. In May 2017, Wakuda conducted an interview with

Masayoshi Yoshino is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a former member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Iwaki, Fukushima and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected to the first of his three terms in the assembly ...

, the minister responsible for disaster reconstruction in the Tohoku Region. In August 2017, she also interviewed with each minister newly chosen by Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

in those days. Each interview was broadcast on ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon'' in the end of the month. In the beginning of September 2018, Wakuda, together with

Yurie Omi is a Japanese former announcer and news presenter, news anchor for NHK. She left NHK in March 2021. She was famous for being the co-host of NHK's morning talk show ''Asaichi'' as well as its geographical television series ''Bura Tamori''. Ea ...

, conducted an exclusive interview with

Namie Amuro Namie Amuro ( ; ; born September 20, 1977) is a retired Japanese singer. She rose to prominence as a Japanese idol, teen idol, and transitioned into a leading Pop music, pop artist due to her versatility across music styles and visual presentatio ...

, one of Japan's leading pop singers who was planning to end her musical career on September 16, 2018. This interview aired in ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon'' on September 10, 2018. On March 17, 2019, Wakuda and

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...

member

Sho Sakurai (born January 25, 1982) is a Japanese singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, news anchor, host and former radio host. He is a member of the boy band Arashi. Sakurai began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent a ...

hosted the first episode of the 4-part documentary "NHK Special 'Space Spectacle'", about the latest achievements in space exploration. The pair hosted all the series, which included topics like the

Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese state space agency JAXA. It is a successor to the ''Hayabusa'' mission, which returned asteroid samples for the first time in June 2010. ''Hayabusa2'' was launched on 3 December 2 ...

mission, the search for

Extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

s, and the mysteries of the origin of life on Earth and it's possible start in outer space, with the last episode airing September 8, 2019. NHK announced on February 13, 2020, that Wakuda would be stepping back from ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon'' and move to ''

'' in April 2020. The anchor of ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon'' was handed over to

Maho Kuwako is an announcer and news anchor at NHK, Japan's public broadcaster. She currently anchors NHK's ''Close-up Gendai'' current affairs program. Kuwako was born, raised, and educated in Kawasaki, Japan, and graduated from the School of Language a ...

, who was at that time one of the anchors of ''News Watch 9''. NHK announced on February 10, 2022, that Wakuda would be stepping down from ''News Watch 9'' and she will be in charge of special features and narration in April 2022. The anchor of ''News Watch 9'' was handed over to Izumi Yamauchi, who was at that time one of the anchors of ''NHK News Ohayō Nippon''. NHK announced on February 8, 2023 that Wakuda was appointed as news anchor of ''

NHK News 7 is the early evening news program broadcast domestically on NHK General TV and internationally on NHK World Premium. It has been on the air daily since April 5, 1993, from 7:00pm to 7:30pm ( JST). History It started broadcasting in its curre ...

''. She left the program for maternity leave in March 2024.

Personal life

It was reported that Wakuda had gotten married in early 2019, her spouse's identity was not made public. She and her husband welcomed the birth of their first child around the summer of 2022.

References

External links

Mayuko Wakuda, NHK Announcement Room , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wakuda, Mayuko 1988 births Living people University of Tokyo alumni Japanese announcers Japanese women television personalities Japanese television presenters Japanese women television presenters People from Kanagawa Prefecture

Early years

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links