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.

Team

A team is a group of people or other animals linked in a common purpose. Human teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Naresh Jain (2009) claims:

Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond his or her limitations. Teams can be broken down into from a huge team or one big group of people, even if these smaller secondary teams are temporary.

A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

Thus teams of game players can form (and re-form) to practise their craft/sport. Transport logistics executives can select teams of horses, dogs, or oxen for the purpose of conveying passengers or goods.

Yasushi Akimoto

Yasushi Akimoto (Japanese: 秋元 康, Hepburn: Akimoto Yasushi, born May 2, 1958) is a Japanese record producer, lyricist and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, making him the best-selling lyricist in Japan.

Career

Akimoto became a television writer in high school, he has produced many television programs, such as Utaban.

Akimoto started as a lyricist with The Alfee in 1981; he has written lyrics for various artists such as Kinki Kids, Tunnels, Onyanko Club, AKB48, SKE48, SDN48, NMB48, HKT48. He also wrote Hibari Misora's last single during her lifetime, "Kawa no Nagare no Yō ni", and Jero's debut single "Umi Yuki".

He debuted an Indonesian version of AKB48 called JKT48. Auditions were held on October 8 and 9, 2011 and the official members were announced early November.

He became a professor and vice president at Kyoto University of Art and Design.

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.

Rino Sashihara

Rino Sashihara (指原 莉乃, Sashihara Rino, born November 21, 1992) is a member/manager of Japanese idol group HKT48's Team H, and a former member of AKB48, both produced by Yasushi Akimoto.

Career

2007-2012: AKB48

In October 2007, she auditioned and was chosen as a trainee for AKB48. She was promoted to a regular member of former Team B. Her first title track single was "Ōgoe Diamond". She placed 27th in the popularity-driven 2009 General Election, where she was grouped with the "Under Girls", the ones who would perform on the first B-side singles. She remained in that position on the follow-up single releases until the following year, the 2010 General Election, where she placed 19th and was grouped with the main girls who sing on the title track. On August 2009, AKB48 announced that she would transfer to Team A, although the transfer did not occur until July 2010.

On December 4, 2010, Sashihara attempted to upload 100 articles in a day on her official blog, with the number of page views reaching 35 million on the same day.