Mariko Oi (大井 真理子, Ōi Mariko, born 14 December 1981) is a Japanese bilingual journalist based in Singapore, who has worked for the BBC since 2006, when she became the network's first Japanese reporter.
[6][7] She attended the Sacred Heart School in Tokyo and then studied abroad at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne where she lived with a host family and learned English.
[12] Oi began her career with brief stints as an intern at Reuters in New York and an Asia Pacific producer for Bloomberg Television stationed from Tokyo.
[13] Oi has covered major breaking news in Asia-Pacific region, such as Akihabara massacre in June 2008, Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, then-American President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima in August 2016, North Korea-United States Summit in Singapore in June 2018, Japanese imperial transition in 2019, 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, postponed-2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, Japanese slush fund scandal in 2023 and 2024, and among other events including British Post Office scandal.
Oi has hosted the documentary Missing Histories: China and Japan for the BBC's Freedom Season.