How to vote in 2015 AKB48’s 41st Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo

kevinMario June 2, 2015

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There are only 3 days remaining until the voting deadline for AKB48’s 2015 Senbatsu Sousenkyo – and if you by any chance still have a voting tickets laying around not being used… you need to get slapped big time with a dead tuna. On the face.

… but seriously, use ’em.

Step 1: Get your voting tickets out

As pictured on the side, this are the voting tickets that you will get with every Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai CD you purchase.

Of course, by now if you haven’t purchased your copy of Bokutachi wa Tatakawanai then unless you opt in for Express Delivery, you’ll probably have to look around for other ways to purchase the voting tickets.

Other ways to get Vote Tickets:
– Last Minute Voting Scheme by ithebigc ( needs a Stage48 account )
Step 2: Visit the voting website

The URL is visible on the ticket, or if you’re just plain lazy, here it is:

http://akb48-sousenkyo.jp/

Clicking the first button (labeled “1”) will take you to the member selection screen by name, which we are not going to cover here because it’s slightly harder if you have zero knowledge of reading Japanese characters, so we’ll give it a pass.

Clicking the 2nd button (labeled “2”), however, is what we’re going to do in this tutorial. Also remember to keep your voting ticket close, since we’ll be needing that very soon.

PS: The website is obviously built with the Japanese fans in mind, because it looks like total crap if you try to open it using a Desktop PC. You might get a better overall experience if you do this thru a mobile device ( smartphone / tablet ) – but just make sure that you have a decent connection, or else your vote might not get thru!
Step 3: Select the team your oshimen is in

After clicking the 2nd button, you will be taken to the Team Selection screen that looks just like this.

You really should know which team that your oshimen is in (I can’t help you if you don’t…) – so choose that particular team. They’re nicely separated by their groups anyways, so you shouldn’t have any real problems here.

FYI
“チーム” means “Team”
“研究生” means “Kenkyuusei / KKS / Research Student”
Step 4: Select your oshimen

After selecting a Team, you’ll find yourself in this screen that contains a list of members that belong to the team you just selected.

Now, this is probably the hardest step if you don’t know Japanese and you’ve no idea how your oshimen’s name is spelt.

What I can suggest is to do a google search on your oshimen and include “site:http://stage48.net/wiki” at the end of your query.

Most of the pages on the stage48 wiki should have the kanji characters of the members, so this should work to your advantage.

For example’s sake, let’s choose Iwatate Saho as the member we’re going to vote.

Her kanji characters are “岩立沙穂” as we can see in the screenshot, so click on her name and we’ll be away to the final steps!
Step 5: Make sure you’re on the right member page!

You should now be on a voting page for member that you’ve chosen on the step before this.

Make SURE that this is the member that you want to vote for – there should be a photo of the member as pictured on the left – so it would be pretty hard to make a mistake!
Step 6: Cast your vote!

If you’re still with me now, then congratulations, you’ll soon be a part of the annual AKB48 festive!

On the 2 text fields (Labeled “1”) on the left, that’s where you input the serial number that is printed on your voting ticket. Type them in and double check that you got it right.

As far as I know, there’s no kind of IP blocking implemented on the site, so you can try again even if you made a mistake when inputting the serial numbers, but why take the chance?

After you’re done inputting the serial numbers, notice the big ass pink button (Labeled “2”) at the very bottom there? (It should say “投票” / touhyou / vote)

Click that button. ONCE.
O~SO~I!!! PUN! ( ｰ̀εｰ́ )

Yes, Saho is angry because it took you forever to finally cast your vote for her – but hey, look at the bright side, you are now a part of the global festival that is AKB48 Senbatsu Sousenkyo!

Let’s look forward to the 6th of June 2015 and be a witness together with the International 48G fandom to the events that will unravel at Yahoo Auction Dome in Fukuoka!

@AKB48WrapUp Will you be doing an article about how to vote for this year's Senbatsu Sousenkyo? Your write up last year was so helpful. Thx.

— M Chey (@JakenziMoon) May 31, 2015

PS: Yes, this is a very lazy copy/paste attempt from last year’s How-To Article – but hopefully this can be somewhat helpful for people who haven’t yet cast their votes! 🙂