AKB48 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group has achieved enormous popularity in Japan.

Its nine latest consecutive singles topped the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. "Beginner" and "Heavy Rotation" placed, respectively, 1st and 2nd in the list of Japan's best selling singles for the year 2010, while "Everyday, Kachsha", "Sakura no Ki ni Nar", and "Flying Get" lead the 2011 rankings so far. AKB48 is named after Akihabara (Akiba for short), the area in Tokyo where, on the 8th floor of a Don Quijote store, the band's own theater is located. Akimoto's idea, later advertised as "idols you can meet", was to create a theater-based idol group whose fans could see the girls live daily. AKB48 still performs at the theater every day, although, due to great demand, tickets are now distributed only via a lottery. AKB48 holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's "largest pop group".Currently, it consists of four teams: Team A, Team K, and Team B with 16 members each and Team 4 with 11 members, summing up to a total of 59 members as of September 2, 2011. Additionally, there are a number of aspiring members, who are called "kenkysei" ("trainees"). Each team produces a new own concert show each theatrical season. Since 2005, when AKB48 was founded, Yasushi Akimoto created several more groups: SKE48, based at a theater in the Sakae area of Nagoya, SDN48, which is intended to have a more mature image, and NMB48. Another concept, first put into action in 2009, is general elections in which fans vote to determine the members who will participate in the recording of AKB48's next single. In the last election, held in JuneJuly 2011, where over a million votes were cast, 40 girls were chosen out of 152 members in AKB48, SKE48, SDN48, and NMB48. In 2010, a new and inventive selection method appeared: the girls competed against each other in a rock-paper-scissors tournament for being on a single. The second tournament will take place on September 20, 2011

History
2005
In July 2005, Yasushi Akimoto held an audition for a new theater-based idol girl group. Of the 7,924 girls that applied, 45 passed the first round of auditions, detailed screening of the application documents. Finally, only 24 girls were chosen to be in the group. On December 8, 2005, the group debuted in the theater with only 20 girls, later known as Team A. A new audition was announced, this audition was held in cooperation with Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo. It was the first audition ever where the applicants had to send in their audition video with their mobile phones. 19 of the 11,892 applicants were chosen to join AKB48, but in the end only 18 girls joined the group to become Team K in April 2006.

2006

In January 2006, Akimoto let Mariko Shinoda join the group without passing audition, after she won a popularity vote by fans, although she was working as a waitress at the Theater Cafe after she failed to attend the first audition back then. AKB48 released its debut single "Sakura no Hanabiratachi" in February 2006, which made it to #10 on the Oricon weekly charts and sold 22,011 units in its first week - surprising for a group on an indie label. On March 1 AKB48 released their first photo book, Micchaku! "AKB48" ~Shashinshuu Vol.1 the DEBUT. On March 31 Yuki Usami graduates, becoming the first member to do so.

From April 1, 2006, Team K begins performances at the theater. On June 7 they release their second indies single "Skirt, Hirari",[21] and sang their song first time on TV programs, Music Station and Music Fighter, on June 9, and on the 17th Ayako Uemura graduates. In August 2006, they signed a major label contract with DefStar Records, a part of Sony Music Entertainment. Their first single under DefStar Records, "Aitakatta", was released on October 25, 2006 and got to #12 on the Oricon weekly single charts. "Aitakatta" sold 25,544 copies, during the first 6 weeks charted on Oricon. In October 2006, a new audition was announced to form Team B, resulting in the arrival of 13 new members in December 2006. On November 3 & 4, 2006, AKB48 performs in their first concert AKB48 First Concert "Aitakatta ~Hashira wa Nai ze!~ at Nippon Seinenkan in Sendagaya, Shinjuku. In December 2006, the first change was made to the three teams; transferring Kazumi Urano, Shiho Watanabe, and Natsumi Hirajima from Team A to Team B as supporting members. Ayumi Orii graduated from the group shortly after this, though appeared in the unit Crayon Friends from AKB48 after her graduation.

2007
On January 31, 2007, AKB48's fourth single (second on DefStar Records) "Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru" was released, reaching 7 on Oricon charts. There has been speculation that the PV and lyrics to this song are an allusion to enjo ksaivoluntary underage prostitutionthough this has not been confirmed. On March 2, AKB48's second photo book AKB48 JUMP&CRY, which photos were taken by Kishin Shinoyama on February 3, was released. Their next single, "Keibetsu Shiteita Aij", which was released on March 18, featured a theme of school bullying and suicide throughout the lyrics and PV and reached 8 on the Oricon charts. AKB48's second concert tour, AKB48 Haru no Chotto dake Zenkoku Tour ~Madamada daze AKB48!~ began on March 10.

In April 2007, Team B was added to AKB48's official website; albeit with five fewer members than had originally been announced. This brought the group's numbers down from 53 to 48 - the first time since its creation that the member total reflected the group's name. Members Y Imai, Michiru Hoshino, and Ayana Takada graduated at roughly the same time during June 2007. However, Takada was the only one of these to appear in the PV to the group's sixth single "Bingo!", which was released on July 18, 2007. In October and November respectively, Shiho Watanabe and Kayano Masuyama graduated. On December 31, 2007, 43 members of AKB48 appeared on the 58th Annual Khaku Uta Gassen for the first time. They sang as part of the Akihabara performance, with Leah Dizon and Shko Nakagawa following them. They became the largest number of people in a single group to be on stage at one time.

2008
AKB48 released their first studio album on New Year's Day, titled Set List: Greatest Songs 20062007. Their seventh single Romance, Irane is released, reaching number 6 on the Oricon charts. On February 27, 2008, AKB48 released their tenth single, titled "Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008". At the time of the release of their debut single "Sakura no Hanabiratachi", there was only Team A in AKB48. This 10th single features ten members from Team A, along with six selected members from Team K, and five selected members from Team B making it the 2008 version. It was planned that people who collected 44 posters of the single CD would be invited to a special event, but this act was suspected as the violation of the antitrust law and was eventually cancelled by DefStar Records. In August 2008, they moved from DefStar Records of Sony Music Entertainment to King Records. In August 2008, Ayaka Kikuchi was fired, though she was later rehired through another audition. On October 22, 2008, the single "goe Diamond" was released from newly contracted King Records on the "You, Be Cool!" label, and finished the first week at number three in the Oricon charts. It was AKB48's first single that reached top three of the chart. On November 3, 2008, Rina Nakanishi, Hitomi Komatani, Tomomi Ohe, Risa Narita, and Tojima Hana graduated.

2009
AKB48 released their 11th single, "10nen Zakura", on March 4, 2009. The single reached number three on the Oricon charts in the first week and eventually became the first single for them to sell over 100,000 copies on the Oricon charts.[37] AKB48 Team A became the honour guest for the Japan Expo in Paris between July 2 to 5, 2009, [38] and featured English-lyric version of "goe Diamond" first time. AKB48's 12th single, "Namida Surprise!", was released on June 24, the single include handshaking event ticket and a voting card (with a serial number) for their next single. "Namida Surprise!" sold 104,180 copies in the initial week on the Oricon charts.

The 13th single, "Iiwake Maybe", released on August 26, 2009,[40] surprisingly outsold SMAP on its first day, taking the 1st place in the Oricon Daily Singles Chart,[41] but eventually ranked 2nd for the week. AKB48 had a US debut concert at Webster Hall in New York on September 27, 2009. In October 2009, their three singles "10nen Zakura", "Namida Surprise!" and "Iiwake Maybe" were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan at the same time for each shipments of 100,000 copies by September.[44] Their 14th single, "River", was released on October 21, 2009, and hit number 1 on Oricon upon its debut.

2010
AKB48 released their 15th single, "Sakura no Shiori", on February 17, 2010. The single topped the Oricon chart and sold over 300,000 copies in its first week, which is the best record in seven years of Japanese female artists. Their 16th single, "Ponytail to Chouchou", released on May 26, 2010, sold over 400,000 copies in its first day, and over 513,000 copies in its first week, making it AKB48's biggest selling single in its first week. On April 27, 2010, it was announced that AKB48 would be attending and performing in the United States at Anime Expo, the nation's largest anime convention, as official guests of honor. AKB48 performed at a concert on July 1, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre.

At AKB48's concert at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium on a Sunday in July 2010, it was announced that Team K member Erena Ono would be graduating from AKB48 to study acting abroad.[49] Erena graduated from AKB48 on September 27, 2010 in a Team K theater performance.[50] On 23 October the band represented Japan and performed at the 7th Asia Song Festival, organised by Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, at the Seoul Olympic Stadium.[51] On October 27, 2010 AKB48's new single "Beginner" was released. In only the first week, the 18th single sold 826,989 copies making it the highest first week sales for AKB48, as well as highest first week sales ever for a female idol group single. As of February 2011 the single has sold over 1,010,000 copies.[52] At the end of October Mayu Watanabe appeared on the cover of the December issue of UP to boy magazine together with Airi Suzuki from C-ute. That was the first gravure collaboration between Hello! Project and AKB48.[53] In November 2010, AKB48 performed in Russia for the first time. A 12-member team gave a concert on November 20 at the Japanese Pop Culture Festival which took place in Moscow.[54] Also in November 2010, AKB48 performed in the Cool Japan Night in Singapore as part of the Anime Festival Asia X. This is followed by a 2nd performance also in Singapore at the Singapore Toy Games & Comics Convention.[55]

[edit] 2011

The first single of the year, named "Sakura no Ki ni Nar", was released on February 16. Upon the first day of release, AKB48 sold 655,000 copies of their single, beating their previous top record (568,000 copies of "Beginner").[56] The single sold 826,989 copies in its first week, AKB48's highest record.[57] In February, it was announced that Yki Kanazawa and Manami Oku would be graduating from the group.[58] Their second studio album, named Koko ni Ita Koto (?), was announced on 21 February 2011.[59] This is their first original album, and it contains 11 new songs that were never released before, including the title track Koko ni Ita Koto.[59] It was scheduled to be released in Japan on 6 April 2011.[59] On March 12, 2011 it was also announced on their blog that the AKB Theater would close due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and all public events were cancelled until further notice. Two days later, it was announced on their official blog that their concert Takamina ni tsuite ikimasu (?, lit. "(We) will follow Takamina"), scheduled to be held on March 2527 at Yokohama Arena, would be cancelled. Bank accounts had been opened to raise donations for earthquake and tsunami relief, as part of their project named "Dareka no Tame ni" ( lit. "on someone's behalf"?). Under this project, they used the Yokohama Arena for their 2-day charity events starting on 26 March 2011 instead. 12 of their main members attended Okinawa International Movie Festival on the same day for the same purpose. Three days later, it was announced that 500 million will be donated by AKB48 groups AKB48, SKE48, SDN48 and NMB48, and their producer Yasushi Akimoto to these bank accounts. On the same day, the postponement of the release of their new album, Koko ni Ita Koto (?) was announced.[60] Part of the proceeds from the sales of the album will be donated to the victims of this disaster.[60] It was also announced that the group will hold a senbatsu election to determine the participating members for their 22nd single.[60] On April 1, they also released a single, "Dareka no Tame ni (What can I do for someone?)" ( -What can I do for someone?-?) through the Recochoku website as a digital download, and will donate all profits for earthquake and tsunami relief. Dareka no Tame ni was originally recorded on a live album released in 2007. On April 8, Manami Oku graduated after performing at a Team B stage on the same day. On May 1, a new AKB48 unit named HKT48 was announced.[61] It will be based in Fukuoka in Kyushu, and their theater will be established in the Hawks Town Mall of Fukuokas Chuo ward.
[61]

AKB48 Official Shop in Singapore, 2011 On May 3, The Straits Times reported that AKB48's first overseas theater will be opened in Singapore.[62] It will be based in *scape Youth Park, and 16 members of AKB48 and sister groups will be performing concerts there for two days in a month, with two performances each day.[62] Apart from the theater, there will also be an AKB48 Official Shop where fans can purchase official AKB48 merchandise, and the world's first AKB48 cafe where Japanese fusion food and desert will be served.[62] The AKB48 staff blog announced that the trainees Nau Yamaguchi and Sara Ushikobu will leave the group for undisclosed reasons.[63] They will perform their last event as members on June 19.
[63]

AKB48 released their 21st singles album entitled "Everyday, Kachsha" on 25 May 2011.[64] On its release day 942,475 copies were sold [64] and 1,333,969 copies in the first week making it the highest first-week single sales record in Japan to that date.[65] Later, on June 7, AKB48 announced a new team titled "Team 4" ahead of their nationwide tour concerts in Japan.[66] The team was formed of ten members, with six more members to be added later to complete the 16member team.[66] This also marked 'Team Kenkyuusei' losing the 'Team' from their name. On June 11, 2011, It was announced at a handshake event that Aimi Eguchi, a girl who had supposedly auditioned for NMB48, would be joining AKB48 as a trainee. It was later revealed that Aimi Eguchi was not a real person, and had been created to promote the Glico product Ice no Mi.[67][68][69][70][71] Oricon announced on 22 June 2011 that AKB48 had the strongest album sales showing for the first half of 2011 in their sales ranking.[2] They had the only two million-selling singles "Everyday, Kachsha" and "Sakura no Ki ni Nar", which ranked as the best and second-best selling singles respectively.[2] For the survey period between 27 December 2010 and 20 June 2011, AKB48 garnered 6.66 billion in total sales of all their merchandise.[2] In an announcement made on 28 June 2011, AKB48's producer Yasushi Akimoto revealed that he will be creating a group to become AKB48's "official rival". The group will be called Nogizaka46 ( 46?) and will debut with approximately 20 members. Yasushi Akimoto revealed that he teamed up with Sony Music Japan to produce this new group, whose auditions for members will start later this year.[72]

AKB48 will release their 22nd single on 24 August 2011.[73] The results of a Senbatsu held previously decided the participants of this single, and the results were revealed on 9 June 2011. [73] Atsuko Maeda won the top position in this Senbatsu.[73] The name of the single was then revealed to be Flying Get ( Furaingugetto?) on 29 June 2011.[74] AKB48 will also be releasing their 23rd single in October 2011 and their 24th single in December 2011.[14] The participants of the 24th single will be chosen in a Janken tournament.[14] Two research students, Abe Maria and Iriyama Anna, were added to Team 4 as official members on 23 July 2011[75] At the same time, the captain of Team 4 was also revealed to be member Oba Mina.[75]

Members
[edit] Team A
Team A's captain Minami Takahashi is also the leader of the entire group.[76] Name Misaki Iwasa ( ) (January 30, 1995 in Chiba)
?

Election 1
x

2
x

3
x

Aika ta ( ?) (December 8, 1994 in Saitama) Shizuka ya ( ?) (December 28, 1991 in Fukuoka) Haruka Katayama ( ?) (May 10, 1990 in Aichi) Haruna Kojima ( ?) (April 19, 1988 in Saitama) Rino Sashihara ( ?) (November 21, 1992 in ita) Mariko Shinoda ( ?) (March 11, 1986 in Fukuoka) Aki Takaj ( ) (October 3, 1991 in Tky)
?

20 22 25
x x

29

28 37 x 6 3 5
x x

Asuka Kuramochi ( ?) (Sept. 11, 1989 in Kanagawa) 21 23 21 7 3 6

x x

6 4 7
x x

27 19 9 23 13 12 x 20 24

Minami Takahashi ( ?) (April 8, 1991 in Tky) Haruka Nakagawa ( ?) (February 10, 1992 in Tky) Chisato Nakata ( ) (October 8, 1990 in Saitama)
?

Sayaka Nakaya ( ?) (October 15, 1991 in Iwate) Atsuko Maeda ( ?) (July 10, 1991 in Chiba) Ami Maeda ( ?) (June 1, 1995 in Tky) Natsumi Matsubara ( ?) (June 19, 1990 in Fukuoka)

1
x

2
x

1 37

30 39 x

[edit] Team K
Sayaka Akimoto is captain of Team K.[77]

Name Sayaka Akimoto ( ?) (July 26, 1988 in Chiba) Tomomi Itano ( ?) (July 3, 1991 in Kanagawa) Mayumi Uchida ( ) (December 27, 1993 in Tky)
?

Election 1 7
x x

2 4
x

3 8
x

12 17 17

Ayaka Umeda ( ?) (January 3, 1989 in Fukuoka) Yko shima ( ?) (October 17, 1988 in Tochigi) Ayaka Kikuchi ( ) (June 30, 1993 in Tky)
?

32 22 1
x x x

2
x x x x x x x

2
x x x

Miku Tanabe ( ?) (December 2, 1992 in Shiga) Tomomi Nakatsuka ( ?) (June 18, 1993 in Saitama) Moeno Nit ( ?) (July 22, 1992 in Tky) Misato Nonaka ( ?) (April 20, 1991 in Fukuoka) Reina Fujie ( ) (February 1, 1994 in Chiba)
?

29 31
x x

33 40
x

Sakiko Matsui ( ?) (December 10, 1990 in Saitama) Sae Miyazawa ( ?) (August 13, 1990 in Tky) Yui Yokoyama ( ?) (December 8, 1992 in Kyto) Rumi Yonezawa ( ?) (June 6, 1991 in Saitama)

38

Minami Minegishi ( ?) (November 15, 1992 in Tky) 16 14 15 14 9 11

x

19

22 34 x

[edit] Team B
Yuki Kashiwagi is Team B's captain. Name Haruka Ishida ( ) (December 2, 1993 in Saitama)
?

Election 1
x

27 x 8
x

Tomomi Kasai ( ?) (November 16, 1991 in Tky) Yuki Kashiwagi ( ?) (July 15, 1991 in Kagoshima) Rie Kitahara ( ) (June 24, 1991 in Aichi)
?

10 12 16 9
x x

3
x

13 16 13 30 32 31 34
x x x x x

Kana Kobayashi ( ?) (May 17, 1991 in Saitama) Mika Komori ( ) (July 19, 1994 in Aichi)
?

Amina Sat ( ?) (October 16, 1990 in Tky) Sumire Sat ( ?) (November 20, 1993 in Saitama) Natsuki Sat ( ) (July 1, 1990 in Sapporo, Hokkaid)
?

8 18 18
x x

Shihori Suzuki ( ?) (February 17, 1994 in Kanagawa) x Mariya Suzuki ( ?) (April 29, 1991 in Saitama)
x

Rina Chikano ( ?) (April 23, 1993 in Tky) Natsumi Hirajima ( ?) (May 28, 1992 in Tky) Yuka Masuda ( ) (August 3, 1991 in Osaka)
?

26 26 26 25 25 20 18 21 27 4 5 5

Miho Miyazaki ( ?) (July 30, 1993 in Tky) Mayu Watanabe ( ?) (March 26, 1994 in Saitama)

[edit] Team 4
The team was announced on June 7, 2011.[66] Name Maria Abe ( ?) (November 29, 1995 in Kanagawa) Miori Ichikawa ( ?) (February 12, 1994 in Saitama) Anna Iriyama ( ) (December 3, 1995 in Chiba)
?

Election 1 2 3
x

39
x x

Mina ba ( ?) (April 3, 1992 in Kanagawa) Haruka Shimazaki ( ?) (March 30, 1994 in Saitama) Haruka Shimada ( ?) (December 16, 1992 in Shizuoka) Miyu Takeuchi ( ?) (January 12, 1996 in Tky) Mariya Nagao ( ?) (March 10, 1994 in Kanagawa) Shiori Nakamata ( ?) (July 25, 1992 in Tky) Mariko Nakamura ( ?) (December 16, 1993 in Chiba) Suzuran Yamauchi ( ?) (December 8, 1994 in Chiba)

35
x x x x

28 x
x x x

36 x