Yuko Oshima became No.1 of AKB48

Yuko Oshima became champion of this year.
Congratulations!!

Enjoy the AKB48 Election with Google+

AKB48 General Election
Global bilingual streaming officially scheduled for June 6th on Google+.


https://plus.google.com/117147321771860727748/posts




This is TV commercial of Google+.
This quotes last year's speech of Atsuko Maeda.

Translation - "During the last year, I've lived everyday thinking about many different things. I only ask for one thing. Even if you dislike me, please don't dislike AKB. Thank you very much!" (and the text that comes up is) "This year's legend has already begun. Enjoy the AKB48 Election/Selection with Google+." )

AKB48 general election was started.

The 4th general election of AKB48.
The purpose of this election is to decide members for AKB48's 27th single's members and coupling members.

If you bought AKB48's 26th single, you would be able to obtain voting right.
And you can vote for your favorite AKB48 member.

Last year,Atsuko Maeda got the most votes.But this year she didn't participate in this election.

AKB48 dressed as a man

The commercial message of suit company in which core members of AKB48 ,Yuko Oshima, Minami Takahashi, Mariko Shinoda, Minami Minegishi, Aki Takagi, Yui Yokoyama, appeared was published May 9.

I like Mariko Shinoda the most.I think it looks good on her.

Atsuko Maeda says she will leave AKB48

Atsuko Maeda, one of the most popular members of the all-female idol group AKB48, said she will leave the group.

She has been an actual leader of AKB48 since the group started.

She made a significant contribution to AKB48.

Atsuko Maeda (前田 敦子 Maeda Atsuko^?, born July 10, 1991 in Ichikawa, Chiba) is a member of the Japanese idol group AKB48. She is in Team A and one of the most prominent members in the group, being voted number one in the 2009 and 2011 Senbatsu Elections. In the 2010 Senbatsu Election, however, she lost to fellow member Yuko Oshima, who was the lead for their 17th Single: Heavy Rotation. She is part of the "Senbatsu" group which consists of AKB48 members that are featured in their most recent singles. On Sunday 25th March, 2012, she announced her retirement or 'graduation' from the group.^[1]

Contents   [hide]  1 AKB48 2 As a solo singer 3 Acting career 4 AKB48 senbatsu elections 5 Solo discography 5.1 Singles 6 Appearances 6.1 Single 6.2 Stage Units 6.3 Movies 6.4 TV drama 6.5 TV Shows 6.6 Radio Shows 6.7 Photobook 6.8 DVD 7 References 8 External links

[edit]AKB48

AKB48 released "Aitakatta" on the major label Defstar Records. Before this release, two singles were released as independent records. For this song, 20 members were selected from the 36 members of Team A & Team K. Maeda was one of these selected members, and she performed a leading role in the promotional video of this song. She has appeared at the front of every single ever since.

The group's 12th single, "Namida Surprise!", included voting tickets for the 2009 AKB48 Senbatsu Election, where fans can vote for who will be featured in the next single. Maeda won with 4630 votes, becoming AKB48's most popular member and frontgirl for their 13th single, "Iiwake Maybe".^[2] However, in 2010, another election was held and Maeda lost to Yuko Oshima, who had 31,448 votes, whereas Maeda had 30,851 votes, so Yuko became the frontgirl for "Heavy Rotation".^[3]

Later that year a different type of election was held (AKB48 Janken Senbatsu Tournament) where any member in the group could be front girl. The members were selected by using the rock-paper-scissors method and Mayumi Uchida received the top spot of AKB48's single "Chance no Junban" which marked the first time a relatively unknown member has been at the front of a single.^[4] Maeda and Yuko were back at the front spots for the next single, "Beginner".

In 2011, a third AKB48 senbatsu election was held. During the early results, Yuko Oshima was leading with first place. However in the final results Maeda won first place with 139,892 votes whereas Yuko Oshima had 122,843 votes beating her with 17049 votes.^[5]

On 25th March 2012, during an AKB48 Concert at the Saitama Super Arena, Maeda announced that she will be graduating from AKB48 soon.^[6]

[edit]As a solo singer

On April 23, 2011, it was announced by Maeda herself at AKB48's handshake event in Nagoya Dome that she would make her solo debut with her debut single "Flower", one of the insert songs for Moshidora, a movie in which Maeda plays the leading role, released on June 22, 2011.^[7][8] She is the second AKB48 member to release a solo single afterTomomi Itano with the single "Dear J".

[edit]Acting career

In 2007, Maeda played the sub-leading role in the movie "Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata" (「あしたの私のつくり方」^?), which was her first performance as an actress. She started shooting this film August 20, 2006 and finished it in late September. After that, she landed various TV drama roles, including lead roles in the dramas "Majisuka Gakuen" and "Q-10."

Maeda, along with fellow AKB member Minegishi Minami, starred in Moshidora, a film released on June 4, 2011, marking her first lead role as a movie actress. Moshidora is a movie about how a weak high school baseball team's caretaker named Minami Kawashima that Maeda plays leads the team to the National High School Baseball Championship by learning strategies from Peter Drucker's business book Management.

In 2011, she played Mizuki Ashiya in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, a remake of the popular 2007 drama series.

[edit]

AKB48

AKB48 is a  Japanese female idol group.They are the most famous idol group in Japan.
AKB means Akihabara which is  a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items.
Akihabara is also known as holy ground of otaku.

AKB48 has their own theater in Akihabara.It called AKB48 theater.
AKB48 do their concert at AKB48 theater every day.

Akihabara is AKB48's home town, so many otaku become a loyal supporter of AKB48.

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

The pop group has achieved enormous popularity in Japan.^[1] It is also one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world, with 2011 record sales of over $200 million in Japan alone.^[2] Its twelve latest consecutive singles topped the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. In 2010, "Beginner" and "Heavy Rotation" placed, respectively, 1st and 2nd in the list of Japan's best selling singles for the year,^[3] while in 2011 AKB48 occupied the whole top 5 of the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart.^[4] The band has sold over ten million records.^[5] More precisely, with 11,787,000 CD single sales by January 6, 2012 according to Oricon, AKB48 holds the record for most singles sold in Japan by a female group.^[6]

AKB48 is named after Akihabara (Akiba for short), the area in Tokyo where the group's own theater is located. Tne idea of AKB48's producer Yasushi Akimoto was to create a girl group that, unlike a regular pop group, that gives occasional concerts and that is mostly seen on TV, would have its own theater and perform there on a daily basis; the fans would always be able to go and see the girls live. Presently, AKB48 still performs at the theater every day,^[7] 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".^[8][9] Currently, it consists of four subgroups: Team A, Team K, Team B, and Team 4 with 16 members each, summing up to a total of 64 girls.^[10] There is also a number of aspiring members, who are called "kenkyūsei" ("trainees").^[11] The member lineup often changes; when girls get older, they "graduate" from the group, while new members are cast through regularly held auditions.^[1] Having several teams not only allows the group to reduce the load on its members, since a daily concert at the theater is given by only one team, but also gives AKB48 opportunity to perform in several places and even countries simultaneously.

Yasushi Akimoto is also expanding his theater-based idol group concept to other cities and, since recently, countries. He has formed SKE48 (based at a theater in the Sakae area of Nagoya), SDN48 (intended to have a more mature image), NMB48,^[11]HKT48, JKT48 (based in Jakarta, Indonesia). Another of his recent creations, Nogizaka46, was announced as an official rival for AKB48.

Given the large number of members in the group, AKB48 uses various selection methods to determine the member lineup who will participate in the recording of a single. Each year, one single's member lineup is determined by fans who vote for their favorite members in so-called "general elections", and one is decided in a rock-paper-scissors tournament. The members of the sister groups are also eligible. The popularity of AKB48 is so huge that in the last election the number of votes cast exceeded 1 million and the single "Everyday, Katyusha", that contained a voting card for the election, set a new Japanese all-time record for weekly sales of a CD single.^[12]