AKB48

AKB48 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto.
The pop group has achieved enormous popularity in Japan. It is also one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world, with 2011 record sales of over $200 million in Japan alone. Its twelve latest consecutive singles topped the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. In 2010, "Beginner" and "Heavy Rotation" placed, respectively, 1st and 2nd in the list of Japan's best selling singles for the year, while in 2011 AKB48 occupied the whole top 5 of the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart. The band has sold over ten million records. More precisely, with 11,787,000 CD single sales by January 6, 2012 according to Oricon, AKB48 holds the record for most singles sold in Japan by a female group. On February 1, 2012, Japan issued a postage stamp in honor of the group.
AKB48 is named after Akihabara (Akiba for short), the area in Tokyo where, on the 8th floor of a Don Quijote store, the band's own theater is located. Akimoto's idea, later advertised as "idols you can meet", was to create a theater-based idol group whose fans could see the girls live daily.AKB48 still performs at the theater every day, although, due to great demand, tickets are now distributed only via a lottery.
AKB48 holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's "largest pop group". Currently, it consists of four subgroups: Team A, Team K, Team B, and Team 4 with 16 members each, summing up to a total of 64 girls. There is also a number of aspiring members, who are called "kenkyūsei" ("trainees").The member lineup often changes; when girls get older, they "graduate" from the group, while new members are cast through regularly held auditions^. Having several teams not only allows the group to reduce the load on its members, since a daily concert at the theater is given by only one team, but also gives AKB48 opportunity to perform in several places and even countries simultaneously.
Yasushi Akimoto is also expanding his theater-based idol group concept to other cities and, since recently, countries. He has formed SKE48 (based at a theater in the Sakae area of Nagoya), SDN48 (intended to have a more mature image), NMB48, HKT48, JKT48 (based in Jakarta, Indonesia). Another of his recent creations, Nogizaka46, was announced as an official rival for AKB48.

Another new concept, first put into action in 2009, is so-called general elections, in which fans vote to determine the member lineup who will participate in the recording of AKB48's next single.In the last election, held in June–July 2011, where over a million votes were cast, 40 girls were chosen out of 152 members in AKB48, SKE48, SDN48, and NMB48. The single "Everyday, Katyusha", that contained a voting card for the 2011 election, set a new Japanese all-time record for weekly sales of a CD single. In 2010, a new and inventive selection method appeared: for being on a single the girls competed against each other in a AKB48's rock-paper-scissors tournament, held at Nippon Budokan. Both AKB48's elections and rock-paper-scissors competitions are now held annually.