Mayuko Wakuda (announcer):A mother of two, she will become the main Caster of a new news program on Nippon Television starting in April. She left NHK in March because she "desired a more flexible work style."

Mayuko Wakuda, the announcer who left NHK at the end of March, will be the main Caster of the new news program "Tracking Coverage news LOG," which will be broadcast on Nippon Television every Saturday at 10 p.m. starting April 25. She attended a press conference held at Nippon Television (Minato-ku, Tokyo) on April 10.

Wakuda was born in November 1988 and joined NHK in 2011. She has worked as a news Caster for various news programs such as "NHK News Ohayo Nippon," "News Watch 9," and "NHK News 7," and hosted the Kohaku Uta Gassen in 2019 and 2021. In her personal life, she reportedly married in 2019 and gave birth to her first child in 2022 and her second child in 2024.

At the press conference, Wakuda explained the reason for leaving NHK, saying, "I had two children, and while raising them, I started to think about the balance between the time I spend with my family and my work. From that time on, I naturally had more opportunities to re-examine and think about the way I work, and I began to want a more flexible way of working. That feeling grew little by little, even though I had some internal conflicts, and that's why I decided to leave NHK."

To his former employer, NHK, he expressed his gratitude, saying, "All the days and experiences I've had at NHK have become an irreplaceable asset to me. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude."

Regarding the circumstances that led her to decide to start her new career on this program, she said, "I will refrain from giving a specific answer about when I made the decision, but the main reason was that I resonated with the concept of this program. As for whether I answered immediately when I received the offer, the main reason for my resignation was that I wanted to drastically increase the time I spend with my children, so I carefully considered and simulated whether it would be possible to make such family adjustments and what kind of work style it would actually be before I gave my answer."

"Investigative Reporting News LOG" is Nippon Television's first news program in 24 years. Its concept is to follow the "logs" of reporters' "reporting records" and deliver reliable conclusions as news with a sense of truth and trustworthiness. The other main Caster is Nippon Television announcer Keisuke Mori.