HKT48

Announced during AKB48's handshake event on Sunday, there would be an additional group to the '48' project, called HKT48. Based in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu, applications are already starting to be accepted.

Initially, Aki-P (Akimoto Yasushi) has already been targeting the Hakata ward of Fukuoka since 2008 - thus 'HKT', abbreviation of HaKaTa. During the launch of SDN48, he stated that the next group would most likely be HKT48, followed by groups in Osaka and Sapporo. NMB48, based in Osaka, was launched first instead in October of last year.

This time HKT48's theater would be in the Hawks Town Mall of Fukuoka’s Chuo ward, rather than in the neighboring Hakata ward.

Applications for the auditions are now open to girls aged 11 to 22 till 31st May. Foreigners are also welcomed to apply.

Official Site of HKT48: http://www.hkt48.jp/index.html

More '48' groups, good or bad news? There are a lot of people who love the idea of having one group for each prefecture in Japan, while on the other hand there are people who think that it's too much. Well, you can actually clearly see which side most fans would be at and which side most haters would be at. I would definitely be supporting the expansion and I hope this can add more variety with each group having their own distinct touch. ^^
On the other hand... that means more people to compete in the senbatsu... that's bad... =[
Hahax! XD Shall be looking forward to the line up of the first generations!