Meet the original ‘48’ girl group
AKB48 was founded in 2005 by Yasushi Akimoto, a renowned producer of top Japanese idol groups among other great feats.
Following his original concept of “idols you can meet,” AKB48 is the first pop group in Japan to have its own theather where performances are held on a daily basis. The idea was to give fans the ability to watch their favorite groups perform live on regular basis.
The members are selected through a nationwide audition and are currently divided into 5 teams ( Team A, K, B, 4, 8) and understudies.
Considered as a top idol group in Japan, all 28 of the most recent singles of AKB48 have reached no. 1 on the Oricon weekly singles char t. Of those, 23 have sold more than one million copies.
As of February 2016, there are 554 members in all the groups. Yasushi Akimoto is expanding the AKB48 concept to several sister groups.
Sister groups in Japan include SKE48 in Nagoya, NMB48 in Osaka, HKT48 in Hakata, and NGT48 in Niigata. Sister groups abroad start with JKT48D ( now called "AK48 Team TP") in Jakarta, Indonesia, and announcements of TPE48 in Taipei, Taiwan, BNK48 in Bangkok, Thailand and now, MNL48 in Manila, Philippines. “Senbatsu Members” selected from all members including those of sister groups in Japan perform the title song when new CD singles are released.