Announcer Etsuko Komiya occupies a hallowed place in the annals of Japanese broadcasting. In 1985, she became the female sidekick to anchorman Hiroshi Kume when TV Asahi's groundbreaking nightly news program "News Station" premiered. She was considered as important to the show's popularity as the colorful Kume was. A staff announcer, she left TV Asahi in 1991 and became a free agent, eventually landing her own anchoring job on Asahi's evening news show, "Super J Channel."
All things come to an end, and recently Komiya was removed from the show and banished to the wasteland of Sunday morning news. The next logical move is as a guest on quiz shows, but before then she can enjoy some of the fruits of her notoriety.
Komiya will accompany rakugoka (comic storyteller) Tsurube Shofukutei when he visits the picturesque town of Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture for "Tsurube Kazoku ni Kampai" ("Tsurube Toasts Families"; NHK-G, Mon., 8 p.m.). The pair will start at the top of the hilly town, made famous in Yasujiro Ozu's classic film "Tokyo Story," and work their way down to the harbor, dropping in on families along the way.