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Announcement: New AKB48 Team 8 formed & Request Hour 2014 Day 1 rankings

  January 24, 2014

AKB48 Team 8 x Toyota

Towards the end of the first day of Request Hour today, there was a surprise announcement (HA!) regarding the creation of Team 8 that will be backed up and supported fully by the car manufacturer giant, Toyota.

This is what we can reveal so far according to Scramble Egg’s G+ post:

Concept: Idol that will come to see you

  • Member election is by nationwide simultaneous audition ( new members, not existing ones )
  • There will be 47 member candidates from 47 prefectures, each of them will be representing a prefecture in Japan and will be decided by the nationwide audition aired Nationwide on TV.
  • The activities of Team 8 members will be fully supported by Toyota ( and its products )
  • Final members of Team 8 will be picked from the 47 candidates.

The timeline / schedule:

  • March: formed in late march
  • May: Events to introduce the members to the areas ( to reveal the members? )
  • August: Theater debut, activity with Toyota ( most likely commercial campaigns etc )
  • November: Nationwide tour.

Just in case you’re in Japan and are interested in trying your luck, the website to register for the AKB48 Team 8 audition is well up and running ( yes, it’s open now! ) although you’ll probably have to have a decent command of Japanese to be able to get past the first page.

From AKB48’s Official Youtube Channel

From Oricon Official Youtube Channel

What do you think of this whole new Team 8 thing?
Do you see it as a good idea or the exact opposite?

Voice your thoughts in the comments below! 🙂

Source: AKB48 Official Blog

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