Hanako Montgomery - International Correspondent
Hanako Montgomery
International Correspondent
Latest
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Mothers at 14. The fierce debate over sex education in a deeply Catholic nationSep 1, 2025Amid a spike in 10 to 14-year-old girls giving birth, debate rages between lawmakers, health experts and church groups over the future of sex education. -
• Video 0:57Video What would happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted? 0:57Aug 27, 2025A partially AI-generated video released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government shows the scenario of Mount Fuji’s eruption, with the volcanic ash expected to impact transportation and people’s health, the government says. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery breaks down what’s in the video. -
At historic summit between Japan and South Korea, Trump’s presence looms largeAug 24, 2025With US foreign policy in flux, Japan and South Korea are finding common ground on trade, defense, and demographic challenges. -
How the atomic bombing of Nagasaki tore apart Japan’s understanding of motherhoodAug 9, 2025Eighty years after the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, aging survivors — some more than 100 years old — reveal the shame and stigma they endured as young women of childbearing age. -
• Video 4:23Video Why these women were ashamed of surviving the Nagasaki atomic bomb 4:23Aug 9, 2025Women who survived the Nagasaki bomb tell CNN about its impact. Eighty years after the US bombings of Nagasaki, aging survivors reveal the shame and stigma they endured as young women.
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• Video 4:31Video The manga that heightened fears of a megaquake in Japan 4:31Aug 3, 2025Japan gets earthquakes every day – but viral predictions of a July 5 megaquake, from psychics to feng shui masters, have spooked some travelers into canceling their trips. While scientists can’t predict quakes, the government warns a catastrophic “big one,” the Nankai Trough megaquake, could strike in the next 20 to 30 years, with damage potentially hitting $10 trillion. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reports. -
• Video 2:57Video Crackdown in Japan’s red-light district 2:57Jul 12, 2025With throbbing lights and giant photos of well-groomed men, Japan’s host clubs are hard to miss.These bars, where women pay to drink and flirt with men, are a cornerstone of the country’s red-light districts. But a sweeping new law aims to rein in their darker side, following reported cases of emotional manipulation and exploitation. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery follows up on her report last year of women driven into debt – and even sex work – by their host club obsessions. -
• Video 3:37Video Japan’s panda town was booming. Now China wants its pandas back 3:37Jul 10, 2025Pandas, and those who adore them, have been central to the culture and economy in Shirahama, Japan for years. But the four pandas at the town’s local zoo really belong to China, and China wants them back, leaving town residents in emotional turmoil. -
Japan’s panda capital is losing its pandas. What comes next?Jul 10, 2025Pandas have fueled the Japanese town of Shirahama’s tourism industry for decades. But the town’s zoo has to send its last four bears to China ahead of an expiring lease, plunging the future of Japan’s “panda town” into limbo. -
US Marine sentenced to 7 years over sexual assault in JapanJun 25, 2025A US Marine has been sentenced to seven years in prison, after he was convicted of strangling and sexually assaulting a woman in Okinawa last May, a Japanese district court told CNN. -
• Video 1:49Video Japan has more 7-Eleven stores than anywhere, and we sat in on their epic snack-making process 1:49Jun 11, 2025The 7-Eleven brand came to Japan in the 1970s, but the stores have taken convenience to new heights, churning out new snack after new snack. They let CNN’s Hanako Montgomery in on their cream-puff-making process. -
• Video 4:07Video Now your toddler can study abroad in Japan… you can come, too 4:07May 2, 2025Three-year-old Australian girl Kinga doesn’t speak Japanese, but that hasn’t stopped her from thriving in a tiny town in southern Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture. Her family, part of a growing number of digital nomads, joined a preschool exchange that’s giving them an immersive, kid-first window into Japanese culture. -
• Video 1:10Video How Trump’s tariffs could impact Nintendo’s Switch 2 1:10Apr 12, 2025Gamers, brace yourselves. Nintendo just announced its next-gen Switch—but US preorders are on hold after US President Trump unveiled a sweeping tariff plan. While there’s a 90-pause on Trump’s tariff plan, a 145% tariff on China remains, and gaming experts fear prices could spike once the 90-day window ends. CNN’s Hanako Montgomery explains why Nintendo’s Switch 2 just got caught in a trade war. -
Architect Sou Fujimoto: Expo 2025 is ‘a precious opportunity to come together’Apr 11, 2025As the World’s Fair opens in Osaka, Japan, the event’s architect tells CNN that Expo 2025 is about unity — and the possibilities of timber. -
‘This is baseball country’: MLB season gets underway in Japan as national hero Shohei Ohtani inspires Dodgers’ win over CubsMar 18, 2025Baseball fever swept through Tokyo on Tuesday as the MLB season got underway, offering fans a rare opportunity to glimpse homegrown star Shohei Ohtani in action. -
The NBA’s shortest player is a 5-foot-8 rising star from Japan. Meet Yuki KawamuraMar 11, 2025Standing at just five feet, eight inches tall, Yuki Kawamura is perhaps an unlikely basketball star. “It’s not like I can do any dunk shots,” he tells CNN Sports.
About
Hanako Montgomery is an award-winning international correspondent for CNN, based in Tokyo.
Montgomery helms CNN’s Japan coverage, reporting on breaking news, politics, society and the economy. Her work spans major stories including the Noto Earthquake, Japan’s demographic crisis, regional tensions with China, U.S.-Japan relations, and political instability within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. She also secured an exclusive interview with former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Specializing in human rights reporting, she has led the network’s Asia-focused coverage on topics ranging from the political battle over adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines, to India’s air pollution crisis affecting children, to human trafficking and immigrant rights in Japan.
A digital-savvy journalist, Montgomery regularly contributes across CNN’s social platforms and text coverage.
Before joining CNN, she was an East Asia reporter for VICE, helping lead coverage on key regional stories across TV, digital video, text, Instagram, TikTok, and more.
Earlier in her career, Montgomery worked as a TV Japan reporter for NHK in New York, covering the first major outbreak of COVID-19 and reporting on culture and society across North America. She has also reported for Al Jazeera.
In 2023, Montgomery won a National News & Documentary Emmy Award and a Front Page Award for her reporting on legal child abuse manga in Japan. She and her team gained rare access to examine the issue, interviewing artists who created the works, offenders who consumed them and government officials responsible for regulation.
In 2022, she won “Best Factual Presenter in Japan” at the Asian Academy Creative Awards for her documentary on Okinawa’s hidden poverty.
She graduated summa cum laude from Binghamton University and studied Japanese politics and literature for a year at Sophia University in Tokyo. Montgomery is fluent in English and Japanese and is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
Born in London and raised in New York City, Montgomery now lives in Tokyo.
