Akimoto Yasushi says “Someday I may graduate AKB48. Tokyo Dome Concert showed a loss of 7,000,000USD”

Tommy Kono January 28, 2013

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It revealed that Akimoto Yasushi, the man who plays the leaning role in AKB48’s BIG success mentioned his graduation day in the talk with Mr. Tahara Soichiro, the famous journalist. The talk between the two was held for the new book titled “AKB48 no Senryaku! Akimoto Yasushi no Sigotojutsu Akimoto Yasushi X Tahara Soichiro (AKB’s strategy, Akimoto’s Yasushi’s professionalism)”, which hit the shelves today, Jan 28.

78-years-old Mr. Tahara, who has been increasingly getting hooked on AKB48, asked Mr. Akimoto, “Mr. Akimoto, will you dedicate yourself to AKB48 for the rest of your life?”

The question which hits the nail on the head.

“No no.”

Mr. Akimoto said.

“I think the biggest surprise that AKB48 could ever offer to fans is my graduation, like ‘As of today, I, Akimoto Yasushi, graduate AKB48!!’ But seriously, I think I am going to graduate some day.”

Then he continued,

“You may consider me as a founder or 1st principle of AKB48. But in order to keep this phenomenon to last longer, certain change, like having a replacement for me, who might want to change the strict way that I used to adapt to develop the girls, is required.

That’s kind of fate of AKB48.

You just hinder development of AKB48 when you try to keep AKB48 as it is now, and that’s when AKB48 ends.”

Though he is not sure when the day will come, he explained it, citing Bill Gates of Microsoft.

“If Microsoft spent money for investment, research and development instead of giving dividends to it’s stockholders, investors would never complain about the company.

But all of sudden, somehow, Bill Gates started paying dividends to it’s investors.

And that’s the point when Microsoft has started to decline, and lost it’s vision for the future.“

Then he boasted his aggressive management philosophy of idols by revealing surprising facts.

“AKB pays no dividends whatsoever.”

“I heard Tokyo Dome Concert posted a deficit of around 7,000,000 USD.”

Tahara, the producer of the book, first visited AKB48 theater to know more about Akimoto Yasushi and the AKB48 phenomenon, and ended up getting hooked on the idol group.

“It’s not just about members blasting performance, but they really communicate with their fans in many ways. I found this idol group where ‘fans develop members and AKB48 itself’ totally new and unprecedented in showbiz.”

It’s likely that this book will be extremely popular as it shed a light on business aspect of AKB48.