AKB48

Introduction
History
Member List
Team A
Team K
Team B
Team 4
Research Students

(from Wikipedia)

AKB48 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto.

The group has achieved enormous popularity in Japan. Its eight 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, Kachūsha" and "Sakura no Ki ni Narō" 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 12 members, summing up to a total of 60 members as of July 24, 2011. Additionally, there are a number of aspiring members, who are called "kenkyūsei" ("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 June–July 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

AKB48 Theater in Akihabara, Tokyo

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.
AKB48 was preparing to make a major debut(March 26, 2006).

From April 1, 2006, Team K begins performances at the theater.

On June 7 they release their second indies single "Skirt, Hirari", 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 kōsai—voluntary underage prostitution—though 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 Aijō", 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 Yū 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 graduate.

On December 31, 2007, 43 members of AKB48 appeared on the 58th Annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the first time. They sang as part of the Akihabara performance, with Leah Dizon and Shōko Nakagawa following them. They became the most 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 2006–2007. 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 "Ōgoe 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 in the Japan Expo in Paris, 2009

On February 11, Reina Noguchi, Yuki Matsuoka and Nozomi Kawasaki graduated.

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.

On April 26, Mai Oshima and Kaoru Hayano graduated. On May 24, Risa Naruse graduated.

AKB48 Team A became the honour guest for the Japan Expo in Paris between July 2 to 5, 2009, and featured English-lyric version of "Ōgoe 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, surprisingly outsold SMAP on its first day, taking the 1st place in the Oricon Daily Singles Chart, 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. Their 14th single, "River", was released on October 21, 2009, and hit number 1 on Oricon upon its debut.

2010

AKB48 in L.A.Live, on July 1, 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. Erena graduated from AKB48 on September 27, 2010 in a Team K theater performance

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011

The first single of the year, named "Sakura no Ki ni Narō", 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"). The single sold 826,989 copies in its first week, AKB48's highest record.

In February, it was announced that Yūki Kanazawa and Manami Oku would be graduating from the group.

Their second studio album, named Koko ni Ita Koto (ここにいたこと?), was announced on 21 February 2011. This is their first original album, and it contains 11 new songs that was never released before, including the title track Koko ni Ita Koto. It was scheduled to be released in Japan on 6 April 2011.

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 (たかみなについて行きます?, lit. "(We) will follow Takamina"), scheduled to be held on March 25–27 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" (誰かのために 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 (ここにいたこと?) was announced. Part of the proceeds from the sales of the album will be donated to the victims of this disaster. It was also announced that the group will hold a senbatsu election to determine the participating members for their 22nd single. On April 1, they also released a single, "Dareka no Tame ni (What can I do for someone?)" (誰かのために -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 Team B stage on the same day.

On May 1, a new AKB48 unit named HKT48 was announced. It will be based in Fukuoka in Kyushu, and their theater will be established in the Hawks Town Mall of Fukuoka’s Chuo ward.

On May 3, The Straits Times reported that AKB48's first overseas theater will be opened in Singapore. 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. Apart from the theater, a 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, will be set up.

The AKB48 staff blog announced that the trainees Nau Yamaguchi and Sara Ushikobu will leave the group for undisclosed reasons. They will perform their last event as members on June 19.

AKB48 released their 21st singles album entitled "Everyday, Kachūsha" on 25 May 2011. On its release day 942,475 copies were sold and 1,333,969 copies in the first week making it the highest first-week single sales record in Japan to that date. Later, on June 7, AKB48 announced a new team titled "Team 4" ahead of their nationwide tour concerts in Japan. The team was formed of ten members, with six more members to be added later to complete the 16-member team. 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.

Oricon announced on 22 June 2011 that AKB48 had the strongest album sales showing for the first half of 2011 in their sales ranking. They had the only two million-selling singles "Everyday, Kachūsha" and "Sakura no Ki ni Narō", which ranked as the best and second-best selling singles respectively. For the survey period between 27 December 2010 and 20 June 2011, AKB48 garnered ¥6.66 billion in total sales of all their merchandise.

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 (乃木坂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.

AKB48 will release their 22nd single on 24 August 2011. The results of a Senbatsu held previously decided the participants of this single, and the results were revealed on 9 June 2011. Atsuko Maeda won the top position in this Senbatsu. The name of the single was then revealed to be Flying Get (フライングゲット Furaingugetto?) on 29 June 2011. AKB48 will also be releasing their 23rd single in October 2011 and their 24th single in December 2011. The participants of the 24th single will be chosen in a Janken tournament.

Two research students, Abe Maria and Iriyama Anna, were added to Team 4 as official members on 23 July 2011 At the same time, the captain of Team 4 was also revealed to be member Oba Mina.

Last Updated: 1st September 2011
(Information from Wikipedia. Couldn't find time to write one from scratch so I shall build on from here in the mean time with information from various sources)

For more information:
AKB48 (Wikipedia)
AKB48 Discography (Wikipedia)
AKB48 (Stage48)


Member List
(From Stage48 - with some edits)

Introduction
AKB48 had a total of 149 members during all their 12 generations. The first until the third generation is what we know as the original teams (1st Gen: Team A, 2nd Gen: Team K, 3rd Gen: Team B).

Later on when more auditions were held, all the future successful candidates would take part of a in-training team of members that would work as sub and under for the official members in various actives (mostly the Theater Performances) and finally, when any of the official members would graduate a girl would be promoted to fill the space.

This group of girls was called AKB48 SEED. This term was was dropped later on and changed to Kenkyusei Members (Research Students). After more auditions and eventually more generations were created, the Kenkyuseis started to perform by themselves in the theater covering various old AKB48 Stages.

In 2009 a Team Kenkyusei (Previously they were just "Kenkyusei(s)" and not part of any kind of team) was created and different "auditions" were periodically made before a new Generation joined the group. All the current Kenkyuseis went through a selection phase where the manager decided which girls "truly wanted" to be an idol and were actually giving their best. Eventually, some girls were demoted during each Kenkyusei Selection to reduce the quantity of members (these girls were always given the chance to audition once again and start from zero,which actually happened to some members, and some even made it to be part of the group once again)

Since then, the Team Kenkyusei are considered and acknowledged as another team of the group and currently even perform in the theater way more frequently than the "official" teams.

They also started to appear in the singles (even as Senbatsu) and also got their own TV show focused on them. denoting the importance they have even though they any of them have a real safe position in the group.


Some AKB48 Members actually auditioned more than once until being finally successful joining the group (like the current Team B captain, Kashiwagi Yuki). Some even auditioned and were transfered to the spin-off groups (graduated Kenkyusei Deguchi Aki and previous Kenkyusei Nakanishi Yuka are now part of SKE48).


As of September 2011, AKB48 has 59 Members and 17 Kenkyusei Members with members from the 10th to 12th generation.

Team A


AKB48's Team A - Their team colour is pink.

Transferred


Graduated


Stages

  • 1st Stage 「PARTYが始まるよ」 (AKB48 Team A 1st Stage "PARTY ga Hajimaru yo") [2005.12.08 - 2006.03.31]
  • 2nd Stage 「会いたかった」 (AKB48 Team A 2nd Stage "Aitakatta") [2006.04.15 - 2006.08.11]
  • 3rd Stage 「誰かのために」 (AKB48 Team A 3rd Stage "Dareka no Tame ni") [2006.08.20 - 2007.01.25]
  • 4th Stage 「ただいま　恋愛中」 (AKB48 Team A 4th Stage "Tadaima Renaichuu") [2007.02.25 - 06.26] and [2008.04.20-10.11]
  • 5th Stage 「恋愛禁止条例」 (AKB48 Team A 5th Stage "Renai Kinshi Jourei") [2008.10.19 - 2010.05.27]
  • 6th Stage 「目撃者」 (AKB48 Team A 6th Stage "Mokugekisha") [2010.07.27 - Present]


Team K


AKB48's Team K - Their team colour is green.

Transfered


Graduated


Stages

  • 1st Stage 「PARTYが始まるよ」 (AKB48 Team K 1st Stage "PARTY ga Hajimaru yo") [2006.04.01-07.05] and [2006.11.08 - 2006.12.14]
  • 2nd Stage 「青春ガールズ」 (AKB48 Team K 2nd Stage "Seishun Girls") [2006.07.08 - 11.06]
  • 3rd Stage 「脳内パラダイス」 (AKB48 Team K 3rd Stage "Nounai Paradise") [2006.12.17 - 2007.06.22]
  • 4th Stage 「最終ベルが鳴る」 (AKB48 Team K 4th Stage "Saishuu Bell ga Naru") [2008.05.31 - 2009.04.04]
  • 5th Stage 「逆上がり」 (AKB48 Team K 5th Stage "Saka Agari") [2009.04.11 - 2010.02.21]
  • 6th Stage 「RESET」 (AKB48 Team K 6th Stage "Reset") [2010.03.12 - Present] 


Team B


AKB48's Team B - Their team colour is blue.

Transfered


Graduated

  • Watanabe Shiho (しほ Shiho) (October, 2007)
  • Inoue Naru (なるぽん Narupon) (September, 2008)
  • Kikuchi Ayaka (あやりん Ayarin) (Fired August, 2008, Joined Research Students, Transferred to Team K)
  • Noguchi Reina (ぐっさん Gussan) (February, 2009)
  • Matsuoka Yuki (まつゆき Matsuyuki) (February, 2009)
  • Saeki Mika (美香ちぃ Mikachii) (August, 2009)
  • Urano Kazumi (CinDy) (Transferred to SDN48 April, 2010)
  • Kohara Haruka (きゅるるん〜 kyururun~) (Transferred to SDN48 April, 2010)
  • Oku Manami (まぁちゃん Maachan) (April, 2011)

Stages

  • 1st Stage 「青春ガールズ」 (AKB48 Team B 1st Stage "Seishun Girls") [2007.04.08 - 10.02]
  • 2nd Stage 「会いたかった」 (AKB48 Team B 2nd Stage "Aitakatta") [2007.10.07 - 2008.02.21]
  • 3rd Stage 「パジャマドライブ」 (AKB48 Team B 3rd Stage "Pajama Drive") [2008.03.01 - 2009.02.01]
  • 4th Stage 「アイドルの夜明け」 (AKB48 Team B 4th Stage "Idol no Yoake") [2009.02.08 - 2010.04.16]
  • 5th Stage 「シアターの女神] (AKB48 Team B 5th Stage "Theater no Megami") [2010.05.21 - ] 


Team 4


AKB48's Team 4 - Their team color is yellow.

Transfered


Graduated

  • Mori Anna (なんちゃん Nan-chan) (Graduated September 2, 2011)

Stages



Research Students

  • Eguchi Aimi - 12.5th Generation (あいみ Aimi)
    [Don't know who is Aimi? Check my posts here! =3]

Debuted

  • Saeki Mika - 4th Generation (美香ちぃ Mikacchi) (Team B)
  • Kuramochi Asuka - 4th Generation (もっちぃ Mocchii) (Team K)
  • Naruse Risa - 4th Generation (なるる Naruru) (Team K)
  • Fujie Reina - 4th Generation ( れいにゃん Reinyan) (Team A)
  • Sato Amina - 4th Generation (あみな Amina) (Team A)
  • Miyazaki Miho - 5th Generation (みゃお Myao) (Team A)
  • Kitahara Rie - 5th Generation (きたりえ Kitarie) (Team A)
  • Sashihara Rino - 5th Generation (さっしー Sasshii) (Team B)
  • Nito Moeno - 5th Generation (もえの Moeno ) (Team B)
  • Nakata Chisato - 4th Generation (ちぃちゃん Chiichan) (Team A)
  • Takajo Aki - 6th Generation (あきちゃ Akicha ) (Team A)
  • Kohara Haruka - 5th Generation (きゅるるん〜 kyururun~) (Team B)
  • Nakatsuka Tomomi - 5th Generation (ともちゃん Tomochan ) (Team B)
  • Chikano Rina - 5th Generation (チカリーナ Chikariina) (Team K)
  • Kikuchi Ayaka - 3rd Generation (あやりん Ayarin) (Team K)
  • Uchida Mayumi - 5th Generation (うっちー Ucchii ) (Team K)
  • Nonaka Misato - 6th Generation (みちゃ Micha) (Team K)
  • Matsui Sakiko - 7th Generation (さきっぺ Sakippe) (Team K)
  • Ishida Haruka - 5th Generation (はるきゃん Harukyan) (Team B)
  • Komori Mika - 7th Generation (こもりん Komorin) (Team B)
  • Sato Sumire - 7th Generation (すーちゃん Suuchan) (Team B)
  • Suzuki Mariya - 7th Generation (まりやんぬ Mariyannu) (Team B)
  • Ooya Shizuka - 4th Generation (しーちゃん Shiichan) (Team A)
  • Iwasa Misaki - 7th Generation (わさみん Wasamin) (Team A)
  • Maeda Ami - 7th Generation (あーみん Aamin) (Team A)
  • Yokoyama Yui - 9th Generation (ゆい Yui) (Team K)
  • Suzuki Shihori - 11th Generation (しほりん Shihorin) (Team B)
  • Oba Mina - 9th Generation (みなるん Minarun) (Team 4)
  • Shimazaki Haruka - 9th Generation (ぱるる Paruru) (Team 4)
  • Shimada Haruka - 9th Generation (はるぅ Haruu) (Team 4)
  • Takeuchi Miyu - 9th Generation (みゆみゆ Miyu Miyu) (Team 4)
  • Nagao Mariya - 9th Generation (まりやぎ Mariyagi) (Team 4)
  • Nakamura Mariko - 9th Generation (こまり Komari) (Team 4)
  • Mori Anna - 9th Generation (なんちゃん Nan-chan) (Team 4)
  • Yamauchi Suzuran - 9th Generation (らんらん Ran Ran) (Team 4)
  • Ichikawa Miori - 10th Generation (みおりん Miorin) (Team 4)
  • Nakamata Shiori - 10th Generation (しおりん Shiorin) (Team 4)
  • Abe Maria - 10th Generation (まりあ Maria) (Team 4)
  • Iriyama Anna - 10th Generation (あんにん Annin) (Team 4)


Former Research Students


Last Updated: 7th October 2011
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