Biography
Click on the underlined program ID > Browse on the Broadcast Library, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation
Cherry blossoms at Yukyuzan, Nagaoka
Tomoko Hoshino was born in the old town of Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, as the eldest daughter of her father, Hoshino Tomosaburou, and mother, Hoshino Etsuko. Her ancestors served the Makino clan, lord of Ushikubo Castle in Mikawa during the Sengoku period more than 500years ago, and passed through Joshu before being transferred to Echigo. They were the Samurai family for generations from the establishment of the Echigo Nagaoka domain until the end of the Edo period. Her great-great-grandfather, Hoshino Sadakata, died in battle in 1868 during the Hokuetsu Boshin War led by chief retainer Kawai Tsugunosuke.<1>
Her grandfather was a classmate of the novelist Matsuoka Yuzuru and the French literature scholar Horiguchi Daigaku, both famous literary figures, at the old Nagaoka Middle School. As a result of this connection, during the Pacific War, Japan’s most famous novelist Natsume Soseki's daughter Fudeko, whom Matsuoka married, and Soseki's granddaughter evacuated from Tokyo to the Hoshinos family home. <1>
Tomoko Hoshino went from Nagaoka Municipal Senju Elementary School to Nagaoka Municipal Minami Middle School, where one year above her was Masashi Hizaka, a novelist who would later become known for his historical novel "Tenchijin." She then went on to Niigata Prefectural Nagaoka High School, just like her grandfather and father.
<Footnote 1> Weekly Asahi MOOK "Shiba Ryotaro II" (Hoshino Tomoko "Me and Shiba-san") Asahi Shimbun Publications, 2007
<Note 1> Mariko Hando’s book "Soseki's Nagajuban" (Bungeishunju, 2009) describes the old Hoshino family home, where she were evacuated during the war, as follows: "That year, there was a record amount of snowfall. The snow completely buried the two-story house, and people tripped over utility poles and wires, so the interior, with only a kotatsu for heating, was like a refrigerator covered in white walls, and it was dark even during the day. ... In the backyard, there were tall giant cedar trees, and many owls lived at the tops of the trees, and at night they hooted plaintively".
Hosei University graduation day
Recording of “Another Journey” in Vienna, with Morio Kita
After moving to Tokyo to enter the Faculty of Sociology at Hosei University, Tomoko's mother sent her daughter's photo to the fashion magazine for women "Soen" to recruit exclusive models, which led to her entering the entertainment industry. <2> During university student, she continued to work exclusively for "Soen" for two years, and Yoshihiro Tatsuki, up-and-coming photographer and also the son of Tatsuki Photo Studio which was the model for the NHK drama "Nacchan's Photo Studio", starring Tomoko Hoshino, also took photos of her gravue.
At the same time, she was chosen as the image character for "JALPAK," a worldwide tour of Japan Airlines, and appeared in the TV commercial "Ningen Ryojyo", <3> filmed in Mexico, making her first appearance on television. Furthermore, while still a student, she served as an overseas reporter for "Another Journey" (co-produced by Mainichi Broadcasting System and Matsuyama Zenzo Productions), and the program was recorded in France, Italy, and other countries with novelist Morio Kita and composer Ikuma Dan.
<Footnote 2> Weekly Asahi serialization, Yamashita Katsutoshi, "Too Early Autobiography: 25 Dazzling Women", Asahi Sonorama Asine, 1984
<Footnote 3> [JALPAK MEXICO "Human Journey"] Broadcast Library Program ID: A27456 ACC Tokyo Creativity Award / ACC-CM Festival 18th TV Film CM Division Outstanding Work Award
Drama "Sazae-san". 2nd year of debut Tomoko Hoshino (right), co-star Akira Onodera (left)
Feb. 22, 1980 media release of "Nacchan's Photo Studio". Age 22
In the autumn of 1979, when Tomoko Hoshino was a fourth-year student, she auditioned for the NHK drama "Nacchan's Photo Studio"<4> and was selected from 600 applicants to play the lead role of Natsuko Saijo. Her refreshing and cheerful acting with Sakae Takita, who played Natsuko's husband, was highly praised, and the show recorded a peak audience rating of 45.1% and an average audience rating of 39.6%. She later said, "I didn't really feel like I was an actress. It was like I was employed by NHK for half a year".<5> In her second lead role, the Fuji TV drama "Sazae-san", she played a completely different, comical role. In 1982, she was selected to appear on Fuji TV's "The Music Fair"<6>, and served as the fourth presenter for six years until 1988, succeeding the actors Yoko Minamida and Hiroyuki Nagato.
In 1987, she was selected as the main anchor of "News Shuttle", a new news program planned by TV Asahi. The co-anchor was Satoshi Asaoka. At the time, she was a pioneer of celebrity anchors in Japan, attracted attention from media.<7> Her first appearance as anchor on October 19 was the day of the global stock market crash (Black Monday), and by the time the program ended in September 1989, she had reported on news from turbulent times that shook the world, including Japan's first communication between the space station and the studio, the Perestroika reforms of Soviet Secretary General Gorbachev, the Tiananmen Square incident in China, and the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
<Footnote 4> [TV drama series "Nacchan's Photo Studio"] Broadcast Library Program ID: 001589
NHK Archives, digest video "Nacchan's Photo Studio" (25th series)
<Footnote 5> Weekly Asahi serialization, Yamashita Katsutoshi, "Too Early Autobiography - 25 Dazzling Women", Asahi Sonorama Asine, 1984
<Footnote 6> [Music Fair '86 1100th episode] Broadcast Library Program ID: 004476
<Footnote 7> The Japan Times, "Tokyo's only actress-newscaster finds early viewer criticism replaced by praise", May.5.1988
Before the news broadcast
Tomoko Hoshino appeared in nearly 50 TV dramas in the 1980s, but in the 1990s she began appearing more in documentary programs. In 1983, at the age of 25, she established two companies: "Limaçon", a personal production company, and "Yu", a company that produced documentary programs. She also worked as a producer on TBS's programs, such as "Chikyu Roman" and "Shin Sekai Kikou".<8>
Soon after "News Shuttle" ended in 1989, she spent a month and a half living in an indigenous village deep in the Brazilian Amazon to film a documentary for TV Asahi called "Naturing Special", which was broadcast as "Amazon: The Great River of Desire".<9> This program won four awards, including the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Award (38th Educational Program Best Award), the Galaxy Award (28th Encouragement Award), the Broadcasting Culture Foundation Award (17th Encouragement Award in the Documentary Category), and the ATP Award (8th Best 22 Programs). At this time, she also published her debut non-fiction work "Riding The Muddy Stream: Amazon, The River of Desire".
In addition, through the program production company "Yu", Tomoko Hoshino has produced and acted in such programs as "A Great Journey Along the Canals of France" (1991, TV Asahi), "A Journey Through European Glass Crafts" (1995, NHK-BS), and "The German Dream Highway: The Road of Kings and Emperors" (2000, TV Asahi).
<Footnote 8> Nihon Keizai Shimbun, "Currently in Production: The Emotion of Witnessing a Moment", Nihon Keizai Shimbun, December 13, 1991
<Footnote 9> [Naturing Special: The Amazon, The Great River of Desire] Broadcast Library Program ID: 004544
Poster for the movie "Soon Spring"
White chrysanthemums & bridge over the Shinano-river, Nagaoka
Tomoko Hoshino has appeared in films directed by Shinobu Hashimoto, Yoshimitsu Morita, and Nobuhiko Obayashi. Her first film was "Maboroshi no Mizumi", released in 1982 to commemorate Toho's 50th anniversary and directed by Shinobu Hashimoto. She continued to have contact with Shinobu Hashimoto, who was known for his screenplays for Akira Kurosawa films. Tomoko Hoshino said that reading screenplays helped her grow as an essayist.
In 1986, she starred in "Soon Spring", a film that directly depicts the social problem of school bullying, and was selected by the Ministry of Education and screened in schools around the country. In "Shitsurakuen", directed by Yoshimitsu Morita and based on the original work by novelist Junichi Watanabe, she played the role of the wife of actor Koji Yakusho and she was nominated the Japan Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1998. She also appeared in "Bokutachi Kyuko A-Train", which was released in 2011, also directed by Morita.
First film set in her hometown of Nagaoka was "Kono Sora no Hana: Nagaoka Hanabi Monogatari", directed by Obayashi Nobuhiko. The film depicts the Nagaoka air raids of 1945 at the end of the Pacific War and the history of Nagaoka fireworks. The main character is based on Seiji Kase, a fireworks maker who launched "Shiragiku; White chrysanthemums" fireworks in Hawaii and Siberia. Tomoko Hoshino plays the role of Kase's daughter, Yasuko Kase, in the film. <2>
<Note 2> Seiji Kase, a fireworks maker, was detained in Siberia after World War II, and every year on August 1st he launched "Shiragiku", a white memorial firework, for his fallen comrades. When Tomoko Hoshino lived in Nagaoka, she watched these fireworks almost every year on the banks of the Shinano River. During the filming of the movie "Kono Sora no Hana: Nagaoka Hanabi Monogatari", she was approached by Yasuko, the daughter of Kase, the character played by Tomoko, who said, "I was so happy you played me".
Plum tree planted by the Inagakis in Nagaoka
"A Daughter of the Samurai" by Sugimoto Etsuko, 1934, NEW YORK. Owned by Tomoko Hoshino
Tomoko Hoshino is also known for her essays. Since her non-fiction book debut "Riding on The Muddy Stream: Amazon, The River of Desire" in 1990, she has traveled to over 50 countries, and has published a number of essays, mainly on travelogues and foreign art. In parallel with her writing, appearance on movie & dorma, she hosted the book review TV program "Weekly Book Review" on NHK-BS for three years from 2001.
In the 2000s, through the efforts of NHK's senior executive producer Hirokazu Kawara, who worked on many news documentaries, she appeared on programs with messages about Japanese peace and culture, such as the 80th broadcasting anniversary program "Pilgrimage of Peace 2005 HIROSHIMA: Tell the World the Heart of the Atomic Bomb Victims" and "Invitation to the Forest of the Gods: Kasuga Taisha Shrine's Eternal Forest".
The documentary drama "Bushi no Musume; A Samurai's Daughter: Etsuko and Florence", produced by Hirokazu Kawara and broadcast on NHK-BS1 Special in 2015, tells the story of Etsuko Sugimoto, the daughter of the protagonist, Inagaki Shigemitsu , a former chief retainer of the Echigo Nagaoka Domain. It follows Etsuko's life from when she went to America and wrote "Samurai's Daughter" in English, to when she became a bridge between Japan and America. This program was made possible when Tomoko Hoshino, who is from the same hometown as Etsuko, directly brought the idea of adapting the story to Kawara.<3> Tomoko Hoshino herself also wrote "A Samurai's Daughter Living Today - Fan Letters to Etsuko," which provides an easy-to-understand analysis of Etsuko's achievements, and it was published by Kodansha at the same time.
<Note 3> The program "Samurai's Daughter - Etsuko and Florence", broadcast on NHK-BS1 Special, stars actress Maki Mizuno as Etsuko Sugimoto, and Cynthia Cheston as Florence, the American woman who supported Etsuko. Tomoko Hoshino herself appeared in documentary scenes, such as visiting Etsuko Sugimoto's grave, and also narrated the drama.
In her private life, in 2008, Tomoko Hoshino married Izuru Yokomura <4>, a journalist and former Moscow correspondent and Africa correspondent in Nairobi for the Asahi Shimbun, who is now an independent journalist & author.<10> The following year, in 2009, they moved from Tokyo to Kamakura, the ancient Samurai’s capital of Japan in Kanagawa Prefecture. In 2023, Keibunsha, a company established by a former editor at Shogakukan, published "Tomoko's Kamakura Four Seasons Diary", essays about the changing seasons in nature like sea or mountain and everyday life of the local people in Kamakura.
Tomoko Hoshino has been writing the popular essay on monthly local magazine "Kamakura Day by Day" since January 2024, following the 30-year serialization of Taku Miki, a member of the Japan Art Academy and the Akutagawa Prize-winning author who passed away in 2023.
<Note 4> Author and Journalist: Izuru Yokomura Official site
<Footnote 10> Weekly Asahi, "Tomoko Hoshino's marriage partner is a veteran Asahi journalist", Asahi Shimbun Publications, June 6, 2008
Tomoko Hoshino, January 2025, at the studio in Shichirigahama, Kamakura