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Mariko Oi
Exclusive Agent
Presenter and Correspondent Mariko Oi is one of the BBC’s best-known journalists in Asia who became the network’s first and only Japanese reporter in 2006.
She covered major breaking news such as the Japan earthquake in 2011, US debt crisis in 2013, migrant crisis in 2015, President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima in 2016, the inter-Korean summit, the Trump-Kim Singapore summit and Palu tsunami in 2018, Christchurch mosque shooting, Japanese Emperor’s abdication and enthronement, the Trump-Kim DMZ summit, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the Rugby World Cup in 2019, the coronavirus outbreak, US-China trade war in 2020, Tokyo Olympics, China’s debt crisis in 2021, crypto crash, former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination in 2022, Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal in 2023, and the global market sell-off which was triggered by Japan’s rate hike in 2024, and President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs which also caused the global market to crash in 2025.
Mariko has hosted more than 20 events at the BBC including its centenary event at the UK embassy in Tokyo and the Planet Earth III live in concert at Osaka Expo . She has also hosted non-BBC events including the first ever GITEX Asia in Singapore this year .
Her journalism career started at Bloomberg Television in 2005 where she gained her finance knowledge as a Tokyo-based producer. Combining that with her Japanese language skills and local knowledge, Mariko has presented the BBC’s special series on her home country for over a decade, including programmes such as One Square Mile Nagasaki (2012), Working Lives of Tokyo Women (2015), Talking Business (2015, 2021), Jump Starting Japan (2015, 2016, 2017), Witness Japan (2017), Worklife Japan (2019), Leading Cities Tokyo (2019) and New Tech Economy Japan (2022).
Mariko is also known for her investigative radio documentaries on Japan including Missing Histories: China and Japan which she presented for the BBC’s Freedom season in 2014. In 2013 and 2016, Mariko spent six months in New York as a business correspondent where she reported from the New York Stock Exchange. She also spent six months in London in 2014, presenting news bulletins and reporting on major stories for BBC News Channel and BBC World News.
Mariko was nominated for the Nikken Woman of the Year award in 2009. She was also recognised by Newsweek Japan as one of the most respected Japanese nationals in 2023.
