Mayu Watanabe

Mayu Watanabe (渡辺 麻友, Watanabe Mayu, born March 26, 1994 in Saitama Prefecture) is a member of the Japanese idol girl group AKB48, Team B. She has released five solo singles.

Biography

Watanabe auditioned for AKB48's 3rd generation and was placed in the newly formed Team B. Her first appearance on an AKB48 single title track was on "Bingo!". With the exception of singles whose lineups were determined by rock-paper-scissors tournaments, she has appeared on all the A-sides for the group's singles since then.

In 2009, she placed fourth overall in the group's first general election to determine the line-up for the group's 13th single. She placed fifth overall the next year for the group's 17th single.

She appeared on the cover of the December 2010 issue of UP to boy magazine together with Airi Suzuki from Cute. That was the first gravure collaboration between Hello! Project and AKB48. On May 13, 2011 she released her photo book, Mayuyu. She commented that the book "is filled with a lot of expressions that I haven’t shown until now, it’s a book I’m really pleased with!” Regarding her cover picture, she said, “Despite being embarrassed, I did my best on the front cover, so I want a lot of people to look at it!” In an episode of the group's variety show AKBingo!, Mayuyu and Haruka Shimazaki's nickname "Paruru" were coined by former teammate Rumi Yonezawa. For AKB48's general election in 2011, she placed fifth overall.