Former SKE48 member Shibata Aya talks about her new role as the face of Abema, when she thought about quitting SKE48 and being bullied in grade school

Former SKE48 member Shibata Aya has been called the face of “Abema”, the announcer of “AbemaPrime” and “Keyaki Hills” has gone through a lot in her life, from bulling in grade school to the becoming an idol.

Shibata was interviewed recently by BuzzFeed Japan.

Shibata talked about being bullied in grade school to the point where a boy sitting behind her cut her hair.  She didn’t have any friends and afraid of being bullied, it was so bad that she didn’t even want to attend junior high school.

As for why she wanted to become an idol, Shibata said that she liked idols a lot, especially the group “Minimoni.” which she wanted to be a member of.  But at the age of 17, she wanted to audition for SKE48, otherwise she thought maybe she could become an OL (office lady) and get married and live in Nagoya.

Shibata would pass the SKE48 4th Generation auditions in September 2010 and would become a member of Team E but it was tough because dancing and singing was tough and she had to learn immediately and study a lot but it was a long learning process.

In 2013, for the single “Utsukushii Inazuma”, she thought she would become part of senbatsu and felt that she would be chosen but she wasn’t. Shibata felt perhaps she should quite if she wasn’t chosen and had a hard time dealing with it considering that her row for her handshakes had longer lines that others who made it to senbatsu.

Her fans upset that she wasn’t selected in senbatsu supported her that she rose to #17 in the AKB48 Senbatsu Sosenkyo in 2013 and for the 13th SKE48 single, Shibata was selected for her first senbatsu for “Sansei Kawaii” and from that point throughout her career with SKE48, she would be in the main senbatsu through 2016 for the 20th single, “Kin no Ai, Gin no Ai”.

Prior to graduating, she felt even as a trainee that perhaps she was not meant suitable to be in an idol group, even feeling she was not suitable for society.   While she told her manager that she wanted to leave SKE48, she did not tell anyone for about a year, as she was preparing for when the best time to let people know.

But there was one thing she wanted to do and that was to be an MC or an assistant on variety programs.  She was interested in the work of newscasters and reporters and at the time, there was not many women who were newscasters who previously was an idol at the time.

When asked if she regrets graduating from SKE48, Shibata said she never does, nor did she ever thought she would like to go back.  Of course, she feels uneasy on days but not for one second does she feel that she wants to become an idol again.

One day she was a guest for “AbemaPrime” and the producer at Abema told her that they are making a new news program titled “Keyaki Hills” and they would like her to be a newscaster.

And just to think that when she did not get selected as senbatsu for “Utsukushii Inazuma”, she was contemplating of quitting from SKE48 to become an OL.

Because “Keyaki Hills” deals with news, politics, economics and society, Shibata says she watches news programs and reads newspapers and she reads books everyday and familiarizes herself with American politics, what is happening in the Middle East, the economy and various topics.

You can read the full interview here.

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