About AKB48

AKB48 is an all-female Japanese theater/idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto.

The pop group has achieved enormous popularity in Japan. It is also one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world, with 2011 record sales of over $200 million in Japan alone. 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, while in 2011 AKB48 occupied the whole Top 5 of the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart. The band has sold over ten million records. 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. On February 1, 2012, Japan issued a postage stamp in honor of the group.

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 with 16 members, team K and team B with 15 each, and Team 4 with 11 members, summing up to a total of 57 girls as of February 5, 2012. Additionally, there are a number of aspiring members, who are called "kenkyuusei" ("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 member line-up 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 took place on September 20, 2011.

By January 6, 2012 AKB48 had sold 11,787,000 CD singles according to Oricon, surpassing Morning Musume and becoming a new record for most singles sold in Japan by a female group holder.


Atsuko Maeda revealed that she would graduate from AKB48 on March 25. This announcement was widely reported in the Japanese media, including the major Japanese newspapers.Atsuko Maeda will officially step down after the AKB48's Tokyo Dome concert on 27 August 2012.

On April 23, the third overseas AKB48 sister group was announced.This group, named SNH48, is based in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

On June 17, 2012, it was announced that Rino Sashihara will be transferred to HKT48 as a "restart" due to an alleged scandal involving her ex-boyfriend.Her last performance in AKB48 will be on July 2012.On June 24, it was announced that the 6 remaining members of the 10th and 11th generations of trainees will be promoted. Their assigned teams is yet to be announced.Additionally, it was announced that the 3rd rock-paper-scissors tournament will take place on September 18, 2012.

On August 15, 2012, the group released their 4th album entitled 1830m. On August 27, 2012, Atsuko Maeda graduated a day after AKB48's Tokyo Dome three-day concert ends
On August 24, 2012, the first day of the long-awaited Tokyo Dome concert series, a teams' reshuffle was announced. Team 4 is being dissolved and its members are transferred to Teams A, K, and B. Also, Aika Ōta is being transferred to HKT48, Aki Takajō and Haruka Nakagawa to Jakarta based JKT48, Sae Miyazawa and Mariya Suzuki to Shanghai based SNH48. Minami Takahashi will perform the functions of leader or "General Manager" of the entire group AKB48, while Mariko Shinoda will replace her as captain of Team A. New Team K's captain will be Yuko Oshima. Team B will be lead by Ayaka Umeda, who is being transferred from Team K.^[101]
In autumn 2012,it was announced that AKB48 is singing the "Sugar Rush" theme from the Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph.
AKB48 was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most number of pop singers featured in a video game for their dating simulation game AKB1/149 Renai Sousenkyo.
AKB48 had won the Japan Record Award for the second year in a row for their song "Manatsu no Sounds Good!".