NPB, Nippon Professional Baseball, started 2012 season series 30th Mar. At Yomiuri Giants game against Yakult Swallows in Tokyo dome, AKB48 sang Japanese for the opening ceremony.
Total 16 members attended the ceremony including Atsuko Maeda, Yuko Oshima, Minami Takahashi, Mariko Shinoda, Yuki Kashiwagi, means there’re almost all major members of the group. They kept standing up straight during song. They added no song arrangement, no dance routine, no extra things, just sang a genuine ‘Kimigayo’.
Because of some trouble on mic system, vocal volume was not sufficient especially for TV audience, but more than 50 thousands people filled up the Tokyo dome stadium rewarded AKB48 with a huge applause.
According to baseball fans at the stadium, they sang so well that they even doubt it was lip-syncing. Of course it wasa live-performance, and members have actually practiced the Anthem since one month before the game.