The newsreader Mao Kobayashi has been selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Women list for 2016, which highlights inspirational and influential women around the world, it was revealed on 21 November.
Kobayashi suffers from breast cancer, which has spread to her bones and lungs, and writes a blog about the illness to raise awareness, an unusual move in Japan where such matters are rarely discussed publicly. Nonetheless, the blog has gone on to be the most popular in the country.