News Watch 9


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 presented by Hitoshi Hirouchi, Makoto Hoshi and Aoi Noguchi. The program has been broadcast by the network since 1961, although it has been using its current title only from 2006.
It is broadcast on weekdays, from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and features national and international news, commentary, sports and weather. Unlike most newscasts, NW9 prohibits the use of full scripts and limits the use of teleprompters.

History

News Watch 9 was conceived as a part of NHK G reformatting. It replaced two news programs; NHK News 9 and NHK News 10, the former being a fifteen-minute broadcast and the latter a popular 55-minute news magazine program. Aside from consolidating the two shows into a single, one-hour newscast, the new show was put into the 9:00 pm time slot, when most Japanese are at home and awake.
The show was launched on April 3, 2006, and was presented by Hideo Yanagisawa, who provided the commentary, and newsreader, Toshie Ito. Yanagisawa left the program on October 31, 2007, due to complications of lung disease. The commentary was provided by several NHK NEWS contributors, before Hidetoshi Fujisawa joined the program two weeks later, on November 19. Ito and Fujisawa left news program on March 28, 2008.
The show was relaunched on March 31, 2008, with a new set and updated graphics, with Goro Taguchi and former News Watch sportscaster Yuko Aoyama providing commentary and news respectively. Kensuke Okoshi replaced Taguchi as commentator on March 29, 2010. In April 2011, Yuko Aoyama was replacing for Asahi Inoue. On March 30, 2015, Okoshi and Inoue are replaced by Kenji Kono and Naoko Suzuki.
On April 3, 2017, they were replaced by News Check 11 hosts Maho Kuwako and Yoshio Arima, which previously they left the show. But on March 30, 2020, Kuwako was replaced by Mayuko Wakuda, who previously left NHK News Ohayō Nippon. On March 29, 2021, Arima was replaced by a former NHK Washington D.C. bureau chief, Masayoshi Tanaka.
The show was relaunched on April 4, 2022, with a new set and updated graphics. The show was switched to three-anchor format. Mayuko Wakuda position was replaced by Izumi Yamauchi. Minoru Aoi, who previously left NHK News 7, joined the show as its third anchor. On April 3, 2023, Yamauchi was replaced by Risa Hayashida. However on January 17, 2024, Aoi quit the program and resigned from NHK, leaving only Tanaka and Hayashida as the remaining news presenter.
The show was relaunched on April 1, 2024, with new set and updated graphics. Masayoshi Tanaka and Risa Hayashida positions were replaced by Hitoshi Hirouchi and Makoto Hoshi, respectively, with Mariko Sato joined the show as its third anchor, replacing Minoru Aoi who quit NHK in January. On March 31, 2025, Sato's position was replaced by Aoi Noguchi, who previously left NHK News Ohayō Nippon as Sato moved to NHK World.

Chronology

The table lists the chronology of programs 9:00 pm NHK news programs.
TitleAir dateTime slot
NHK Today's News1961/04 - 1963/0321:30 - 22:00
NHK Today's News1963/04 - 1964/0321:30 - 21:40
NHK NEWS1964/04 - 1969/0321:00 - 21:18
NHK NEWS1969/04 - 1972/0321:30 - 21:55
NHK NEWS1972/04 - 1974/0321:00 - 21:15
NEWS CENTER 91974/04 - 1988/0321:00 - 21:40
NHK NEWS TODAY1988/04 - 1988/0921:00 - 22:20
NHK NEWS TODAY1988/10 - 1990/0321:00 - 22:00
NHK NEWS 211990/04 - 1993/0321:00 - 22:00
NHK NEWS 91993/04 - 2000/0321:00 - 21:30
NHK NEWS 92000/04 - 2006/0321:00 - 21:15
NEWS WATCH 92006/04 - Present21:00 - 22:00

Presenters

Main Presenters
  • Hitoshi Hirouchi - Presenter
  • Makoto Hoshi - News reader
  • Aoi Noguchi - News reader
  • Hideo Yanagisawa
  • Hidetoshi Fujisawa
  • Toshie Itō - News reader
  • Yuko Aoyama -
  • Goro Taguchi
  • Kensuke Ōkoshi - Presenter
  • Asahi Inoue - News reader
  • Kenji Kōno - Presenter
  • Naoko Suzuki - News reader
  • Yoshio Arima - Presenter
  • Maho Kuwako - News reader
  • Mayuko Wakuda - News reader
  • Masayoshi Tanaka - Presenter
  • Izumi Yamauchi - News reader
  • Minoru Aoi - News reader
  • Risa Hayashida - News reader
  • Mariko Sato - News reader
Correspondents
  • Daiki Takeno
  • Rinka Sugaya
  • Shungo Oshio
  • Minami Himeno
  • Masayuki Sanjō
  • Daisuke Kobayashi
  • Izumi Tanaka
  • Nozomi Kurihara
  • Sayuri Hori
  • Mitsuki Uehara
  • Hitoshi Fukagawa
  • Makoto Hoshi
  • Tomohiro Hatta
  • Hikaru Urushibara
  • Yōji Nakamichi
  • Shuhei Takayanagi
  • Hiroki Fujishige
  • Tomoyuki Yazaki
  • Mao Yoshioka
  • Miki Toyoshima
  • Emi Hatakeyama
Sports Presenters
  • Mao Yoshioka
  • Yuko Aoyama
  • Ayako Ichinayagi
  • Tomomi Hirose
  • Aya Sasaki
  • Tadayuki Ichihashi
  • Takuya Tadokoro
  • Shuhei Takayanagi
  • Miki Toyoshima
  • Takanobu Hayasaka
Weather
  • Kimiharu Saita
  • Asami Kuboi
  • Nobuyuki Hirai
  • Hiroko Ida
  • Yumi Hirano
  • Ryoko Fukuoka

    International broadcast

The program is available on NHK World Premium and TV Japan. It was also available on its global news and information channel, NHK World until January 30, 2009, where it was aired with an English voice-over.