AKB48 held a drawing for group placements for upcoming 3rd Janken tournament

  July 8, 2012

On July 8th at Tokyo Bigsite, AKB48 held a drawing for group placements for upcoming 3rd Janken tournament which will decide Senbatsu members for AKB’s 29th single.

All 86 members who will participate the tournament drew lots. Watanabe Mayu (18), who won 2nd spot in the election is seeded for 1st round and will join the tournament from the 2nd round. Besides, her opponent that she will face in the 2nd round  already declared her withdrawal from the tournament, so Mayu will be selected for Senbatsu by just winning only one battle, the 3rd round. The member who declared withdrawal is Masuda Yuka (20). The reason for her move is because she wants to focus on her work for Miyamoto Amon produced musical “Whiz”.
The last tournament’s winner Shinoda Mariko (26) will join from the 2nd round and will face Ohya Shizuka (20), who is also in team A and also from Fukuoka, the hometown of Shinoda.
The final tournament will be held on Sep 18 at Nippon Budo-Kan.
Oshima Yuko to face the winner of the match between Kuramochi Asuka vs Kawaei Rina.
The only member who has participated in all singles of AKB as Senbatsu, Kojima Haruna will face Yamauchi Suzuran in the 1st round.
Other members who won seeds for 1st rounds includes Takahashi Minami (21), Kashiwagi Yuki (20) and Matsui Jurina (15).
The only 4 members who won Senbatsu position both in past 2 Janken tournaments are Kojima Haruna (24), Kasai Tomomi (20), Sato Sumire (18) and Maeda Ami (17)

This year’s tournament has total of 65 regular members from AKB48 (not including Masuda Yuka) plus Matsui Jurina and Watanabe Miyuki, as both of them have concurrent positions in AKB48. In addition, 8 members from SKE48, 6 members from NMB48 (Shinohara Kanna, Hikawa Ayame, Kawakami Reina, Takano Yui and Kotani Riho), 3 members from HKT48 (Eto Sayaka, Moriyasu Madoka and Nakanishi Chiyoriand 1 member from AKB’s KKS will join this tournament, making total of 85 members will try their luck to seize their Chance no Junban!!

source 1, 2,

Masuda Yuka
As I told you at the Handshake event, I withdraw from Janken tournament which will be held in September. Practice for the musical will start from August, so I’ll focus on it! I’m sorry for my fans, but I will give it everything !! Please looking forward to it!!

Watanabe Mayu won a seed for the 1st round

 Kojima Haruna, who has been Senbatsu for all AKB’s past singles, says “I want to be Senbatsu (for Janken singles) for 3 years in a row!! Please let me win!!”

Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
from Togachan’s Gugutasu

Related post: (Pictorial report) AKB48 Janken Tournament Bracket