SKE48 Nakanishi Yuka struggling to make decision whether to run for the election or not

  April 1, 2013

What’s the deal with this Candidacy system that is implemented in this year’s AKB48 general election?

On one side it opens up a way members to express their passion and determination,but on the other side, it forces members face the economic reality that resides in this AKB48 election where one has to pay money (normally through buying records) in order to cast votes.

Nakanishi Yuka shared her thoughts on election where she reflects on both bright and stark aspects of the event.

20130401-152538.jpg

Nakanishi Yuka posted the following texts on Google Plus:

Whether I should run for the general election or not… Honestly I’ve been struggling to make a decision.

Why? Because this is not just about me. Not everything is up to my own efforts. Once I declare my candidacy, it’ll become a matter that involves lots of people.

If this would be something like Janken tournament, I would be able to make a quick decision without considering it much.

The last year’s election was great for me. It made me incredibly happy. Since then, the election result has saved me for countless times when time gets though. It’s been emotional support for me.

But, on the other hand, I’m aware of the fact that the result was more or less made out of sacrifices of people.

Since I heard the candidacy system for this year’s election, I paid a lot of thoughts to it.
And the conclusion I reached about it is:

If me running for the election will make people who support me suffer, I don’t want to participate in the election.
But if me joining the election battle will let them enjoy the event more, I want to run for the election.

Therefore, I want to hear your opinions before drawing the final conclusion.

Perhaps I shouldn’t share things like this on Google Plus platform, but because I felt the election is the issue not only about me but about you and me, I decided to share this with you.

Everyone, I’m looking forward to hearing your voices.

source: Nakanishi Yuka google plus

The basic economics says people pay money on things to increase happiness, and free trade makes it efficient to increase the total amount of happiness.
But what if the money you spent because you thought it makes you feel better will actually bring disappointment or regret?

Things get complicating all the more because in order to buy voting ticket, fans must buy a record by AKB48, not SKE48.

Plus, she barely made it in last year’s election. She was 63th.

If a couple of members would overtake her this year and make her drop out of the ranking, the whole energy, love and money her fans put will end in vain

(Though, It’s easy to think that it’s mainly the election result itself that gives us pleasure. And it is, for the few short moments that we’re enjoying election hangover. But consider how much time we spend anticipating the result, compared to just listening the announcement of result.)

video: AKB48 4th Senbatsu Election 63th Nakanishi Yuka


AKB48 32nd Single Senbtasu Election official page