AKB48

AKB48 (pronounced A.K.B. Forty-eight) is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (Akiba for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located, and its original roster of 48 members. As of December 2015, the group has expanded to include more than 130 members aged from their early teens to their mid-20s. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with its own theater (unlike pop groups performing occasional concerts and seen on television) and performing daily so fans could always see them live. This "idols you can meet" concept includes teams which can rotate performances and perform simultaneously at several events and "handshake" events, where fans can meet group members. Akimoto has expanded the AKB48 concept to several sister groups in Japan, China and Indonesia.

The group is one of the highest-earning musical performers in Japan, with 2013 sales of over $128 million, and has been characterized as a social phenomenon.As of December 2015 the group has sold over 41 million records, including over 36 million singles and over 5 millon albums. AKB48 is the highest selling musical act in Japan in terms of singles sold and the highest by a girl group. AKB48's twenty-nine latest singles have topped the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, with a record twenty-three singles selling over a million copies; their highest selling single, "Sayonara Crawl", sold over 1.95 million in 2013. In 2010 "Beginner" and "Heavy Rotation" placed first and second, respectively, on the list of Japan's best-selling singles for the year. In all consecutive years since then, AKB48's singles have occupied the top four or five spots of the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart.

Mariko Shinoda

Mariko Shinoda (篠田 麻里子, Shinoda Mariko, born March 11, 1986 in Fukuoka) is a Japanese singer, actress, fashion model, and former member of the Japanese idol group AKB48, in which she was the captain of Team A.

Career

In October 2005, she auditioned for AKB48 but did not make the first generation. She started working at a café in AKB48's theater, then known as Akihabara 48, as a staff member. Yasushi Akimoto, general producer of AKB48, gave her a chance to join AKB48 on the condition that she learn the group's 12 songs and dances in four days. She became AKB48's first non-generation, or "1.5 generation", member with her debut on Team A on January 22, 2006. Her first single as part of the main group was on "Aitakatta". On March 30, 2011, she began to host a show with her own name, Mariko-sama no Oriko-sama (麻里子様のおりこうさま!) on NHK. She has appeared individually in television commercials and was cited as the "queen of TV commercials" (CM joō) for 2012 for having more contracts (a total of twenty) with companies to appear in their ads than any other female tarento (fellow AKB48 member Tomomi Itano was tied at 20).