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"These girls start from the amateur level with few singing and dancing skills," he told Reuters. Hidetomi Tanaka, a professor at Jobu University, offered a more prosaic explanation. This week's election fever has been attributed to discontent with conventional elections, with one expert even drawing an improbable comparison with the Arab spring. Just as K-pop has outgrown its South Korean roots, sister groups have emerged in Jakarta, Taipei and Shanghai. Together, the 48 stable has more than 230 members comprising four main groups and several smaller offshoots. But neither that, nor the arrest of one singer's mother for allegedly having sex with a minor, has slowed the group's rise to J-pop's apex. Their performances owe more to a heightened sense of kawaii cuteness than overt sexuality, but AKB48 members courted controversy over a recent confectionary commercial that some conservative commentators deemed inappropriate. Members appear in commercials for everything from chocolate to mobile phones, and they were recently enlisted in campaigns to sell Japanese government bonds and prevent teenage suicides. The group, named after the geeky Akihabara district of Tokyo, have had a succession of million-selling singles and generated sales of more than US$200m in CD and DVD sales last year alone. Since their debut in 2005, AKB48 have built up a huge following among girls in Japan and, more recently, other parts of Asia, as well as salarymen who flock to concerts and publicity events for the chance to shake hands and exchange a few words with their idols. One fan reportedly spent US$6,700 to secure 2,700 votes in online auctions. With the most devout snapping up multiple CDs to boost the prospects of their favourite singer, the single sold a record 1.62m copies in its first week.
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Each copy came with a code number enabling consumers to cast their votes online. The marketing brilliance did not end there: the public could only secure votes by buying a copy of the group's latest single, a Japanese and English track about the joys of summer.
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The group's 90 members appear in rotation depending on their popularity with the public. Oshima and 15 other performers earned enough votes among the 1.4 million cast to guarantee them a place in the lineup for the group's 27th single, to be released in August.
HIGH SCHOOL DAYS AKB48 FULL
Likening herself to a flower bud about to come into full bloom, she told her fans: "You have given me water and light. Even the normally staid broadsheets recognised that her election, with 108,000 votes – putting her well ahead of her closest rival – was a significant moment in J-pop history.
HIGH SCHOOL DAYS AKB48 TV
Images of Oshima, who will lead the group for the next year, were plastered over the following day's newspapers and generated hours of analysis on daytime TV shows. Japan's broadcasters spent weeks trailing the vote, culminating in three hours of live coverage from the Nippon Budokan venue in Tokyo on Wednesday night. In a contest that has gripped Japan for weeks, Yuko Oshima – a relatively mature singer at the age of 23 – emerged as the most popular member of the band, whose sugar-coated refrains have rivalled their Korean counterparts for the affections of Asian pop fans. There was no place for greying, middle-aged men in dark suits - the candidates were dozens of teenagers and women in their early 20s, all vying for the title of president of the J-pop phenomenon AKB48. High school days kimi ni Donna kotoba de tsutaereba ii? Boku wa hohoemi High school days mou ichido dake Chiisana dekikoto ni tokimekitai yo High school days ima wa Tsumetai mizu ni tobikomu you ni Mirai e oyogi dasou Kimi no seifuku ga Kion wo agete natsufuku ni natta Shiroi hankachi de Nugutta ase wa koi no monoroogu sa Hoosu no saki Hosometara Ishi ga aru you na Mizushibuki ni Aozora no mukou niji ga dekirunda High school days Tanoshii hibi yo mabushii jikan wa Shizuka ni ochiru yume no suna High school days boku wa Honno isshun mabuta wo tojite Setsunaku naru High school days kimi no koto wa Zettai suki nante ienainda High school days zutto Kizukanai kurai tooi basho kara Chisana niji wo kake you High school days Karenaa wo mekureba aseru yo Kimi e no ai ga modokashii High school days toki wa Kizukanuuchi ni sugi ni nigeteku Kaze no hashiato High school days furimukanai de Kyonen no taiyou wa kuyamu yori mo.But this was not politics as usual. Tsuyoi hi wo ukete Kousha no mado ga kirakira shiteru Boku wa te wo kazashite Kokoro no naka de kimi wo sagashiteita Puuru no soko Souji shite Natsu wo machi nagara Kotoshi koso wa Omoide wo hitosu tsukurou to omou High school days Karendaa wo mekureba chikazuku Kisetsu wa itsu mo hayaashi de.
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