Photo/Illutration Journalist Tomoko Wakui in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward in November (Photo by Takahiro Takizawa)

An elderly woman with a blue walking stick can always be spotted in the audience at the mayor's monthly news conference in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward.

Journalist Tomoko Wakui, donning a hearing aid, takes notes with a pencil on the seventh floor of the ward office. She stays to interview ward government officials after the session.

Wakui, 91, reports for the Shukan Tokyo newspaper, covering the town known for its pop culture, such as manga and anime. She also serves as its editor-in-chief.

The local newspaper, first published in 1974, is released twice a month. Some 3,000 copies are printed.

Nakano Mayor Naoto Sakai, 51, has known Wakui for 26 years.

“She embodies the never-retire spirit,” said Sakai, who first met her when he was a young ward employee. “I want to follow her example.” 

Wakui does news gathering and reporting on her own although she gets editorial help from her daughter, Kumiko.

Wakui crisscrossed the town by bicycle until she broke her leg four years ago.

She now travels around on foot or by bus, relying on her walking stick, to cover everything from a ward-sponsored event to a children’s baseball game.

One memorable story is about Nihonkaku, a well-known wedding hall in the Higashi-Nakano district, which closed for good three years ago.

During its 100-year history, as many as 110,000 couples, including Wakui and her late husband, Hironori, had tied the knot.

Wakui retraced the history of the established venue and reported that it stood on the former site of a fishing pond.

She received a great response from readers who said her story “brought back sweet memories.”

Behind her determination to continue publishing the local newspaper is Hironori, who was its first editor-in-chief and died of cancer at the tender age of 53 in 1982.

Wakui still remembers Hironori working on an article in his hospital room until immediately before his death.

“It would have done him wrong if I had not taken over from him,” she recalled.

Wakui inherited her husband’s beloved Nikon F single-lens reflex camera to start her career as a news reporter at age 50.

Her legs have become weak, and she has difficulties in seeing and hearing. Readership numbers have also been on the decline.

Wakui has no intention of giving up on the print medium, however.

“Some from our generation have difficulties using the internet,” she said. “I am rewarded if we can keep our readers abreast of what is happening throughout Nakano Ward.”

The nonagenarian journalist said meeting and talking with people keeps her in good health.

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Tomoko Wakui attends a news conference held by Nakano Mayor Naoto Sakai in October. (Takahiro Takizawa)

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