Norio Fukutome

Honestly, Norio Fukutome has one of those voices you can't un-hear once it's lodged in your brain. He's a guy who came up as an announcer and then just slipped out of that buttoned-up suit into the looser world of a TV personality, which I always find kind of admirable. Born in Kochi and raised in Osaka, he fronted Zoom In!! Asa! and Trans-America Ultra Quiz, and you feel his energy in how he hosts. I love that he belongs to a warmer, earthier era of Japanese broadcasting, the kind of host whose body heat you can practically feel in the pauses and the playful needling. And the man kept that vocal punch as the years stacked up. Holding a room with nothing but your voice is a lifelong craft, and he clearly never lost it.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Norio Fukutome is a Japanese announcer and television personality born on January 28, 1942, in Kohoku-cho, Kochi Prefecture. He graduated from Meiji University and went on to become a prominent figure in Japanese broadcast media. A former Nippon Television announcer raised in Osaka, he hosted the morning show Zoom In!! Asa! and the quiz shows Trans-America Ultra Quiz and the All Japan High School Quiz Championship. He later transitioned from his announcer role to work as a freelance television personality.

Name (English)

Norio Fukutome

Name (Japanese)

福留功男

Reading

ふくとめ のりお

Born

January 28, 1942 (age 84)

Origin

Kohoku-cho, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Announcer / Television Personality

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Horse

Blood type

A

Active years

1966 -

University

Meiji University

Spouse

Married

Works summary

Appearances

72

By year (titles with a known year)

1983: 1, 1987: 1, 1988: 2, 1993: 1, 1997: 3, 1998: 1, 1999: 1, 2000: 2, 2004: 2, 2009: 3, 2010: 3, 2011: 1, 2012: 2, 2013: 1, year unknown: 48

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A6%8F%E7%95%99%E5%8A%9F%E7%94%B7
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11594301

Tags

• From Kochi Prefecture
• Announcer
• Television Personality

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.