Alumnae Announcers
Most Well Known Voice Is Nishimachi Alumna! Interview with Mai Shoji ‘94 When were you first offered the job as English announcer for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics? A casting staff directly emailed me through my official website a few years back. I was suspicious at first, but I had worked with them for the Aomori Asian Winter Games, FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, and other various world competitions. Slowly it started to sink in, and I thought, “Whoa!” I still remember that mixed feeling of surprised confusion. Other than for the opening and closing ceremonies, what other commentary did you provide for this year’s Olympics? Any athletic events? If so, which ones? I was hired to do the announcements for the opening and closing ceremonies, which was a great honor because they’re considered to be the pinnacle of all the events. They require days of rehearsals while the games are being held, so I wasn’t able to work for the athletic events. How did you feel about your voice being broadcast, live, to the whole entire world? Broadcasting live to the world is not new to me, as I’ve presented on NHK World TV every day for five years and had opportunities to emcee at countless world events. But I am aware that the magnitude and importance of the Olympics eclipses the number of ears my voice may reach the number of ears my voice will reach. I also know that announcing for the opening and closing ceremonies is what everyone in my field hungers for. So, I carried their ambition with me and made sure I did my best for them too.
18
The Internationalist
The opening and closing ceremonies were quite long. How do you handle getting a drink of water or even going to the bathroom? That’s a question I asked myself when I first saw my script. We had a couple of staggered rehearsals and then three dress rehearsals, so we carefully planned bathroom breaks during the long entertainment segments. Water intake was sometimes hard when there were fewer participating athletes from a certain country because then we had to announce country names back-to-back. What tips do you have for not losing your voice over such long periods of time? I was reading out more than 200 countries for both the Olympic and Paralympic opening ceremonies and that alone took about two and a half hours nonstop. I don’t do much in the way of voice exercise or training, but somehow, I never lose it. I’ve been in this business for almost twenty years so I guess abdominal breathing comes naturally. How did you learn how to pronounce all the names of the countries and flag bearers? How much practice time was allocated? I had a couple of meetings with IOC members prior to the ceremonies, so I was able to run the names by them. There were last-minute changes involving a few names I wasn’t exactly sure how to pronounce, and in this case, they trusted my judgment. On some occasions, pronunciation depends on specific event organizers.
