Bandai Namco Games is bringing the idols from AKB48 to the arcade, but Sailor Zombie: AKB48 Arcade Edition isn’t a run of the mill music game. It’s a light gun shooter where you shoot vaccine bullets ...

Two years ago, around the time the Democratic Party of Japan’s brief spell in power was coming to a close, I met with two colleagues—one a noted political scholar and chancellor of a public university ...

Top Japanese girl band AKB48 have released a single created using AI, after it proved more popular with fans than a rival song written by famed J-pop producer Yasushi Akimoto. As part of a songwriting ...

In a heartfelt moment during the AKB48 20th Year Live Tour 2025 at Nippon Budokan, Atsuko Maeda moved the audience to tears with her emotional tribute to Yasushi Akimoto, the mastermind behind the ...

Japan’s 140-member supergroup AKB48 is holding its second annual draft next month, in which sub-teams will choose new members from a draft of 48 young hopefuls. And among the finalists is one of the ...

The music industry is notorious for its rapid changes, and AKB48 must navigate a landscape filled with fierce competition from emerging artists and genres. To remain relevant, the group must not only ...

Rosemary Overell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

Pop star Minami Minegishi - the last of AKB48's first-generation members - has shocked fans by bidding farewell to the Japanese idol group. Ms Minegishi, 27, thanked fans at the 14th anniversary show ...

The Japanese girl group AKB48 releases two new videos with departing member Mayu Watanabe: "Juuichigatsu No Anklet" and "Sayonara De Owaruwakejanai." By Billboard ...

A Japanese pop idol, hair freshly shaved to the skin, takes to YouTube and bursts into tears as she begs for mercy over her transgression. “My name is Minami Minegishi of AKB48 Team B,” she says, ...

It’s a weekday evening in Tokyo and high-octane J-pop bounces off the walls of a crowded club. On stage, 18 teenage girls wearing pink pyjamas and fixed smiles rattle through a series of synchronised ...

J-pop girl group AKB48 hit the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on Sunday (April 1) for their first solo headlining concert in two years. By Billboard Japan J ...