generasia:Featured article for 2010 week 52

AKB48

AKB48 (short for Akihabara 48) is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Akimoto Yasushi. They have their own theater in Akihabara (a district in Tokyo) where they perform once every weekday, and twice on both Saturday and Sunday. The concept of the group is "idols you can meet".

AKB48 released its debut single, "Sakura no Hanabiratachi", in February 2006. It made it to #10 on the Oricon weekly chart and sold 22,011 units in its first week - surprising for a group on an indies label. In August 2006, they signed a major label contract with DefSTAR Records, a part of Sony Music Entertainment. Their first single under DefSTAR Records, "Aitakatta", was released on October 25, 2006 and debuted at #12.

In October 2008, the group signed with KING RECORDS under the You, Be Cool! label and released their 10th single, titled "Oogoe Diamond". The cover solely featured Matsui Jurina of the newly formed sister group SKE48. Starting with this single, AKB48 as seen a gradual surge of sales and popularity. On October 21, 2009, AKB48 released "RIVER", which became their first single to be #1 on the Oricon weekly chart. All of their singles that followed have also been #1 hits.

2010 proved to be a successful year for AKB48. The group holds the top two spots on the 2010 Oricon singles chart with "Beginner" and "Heavy Rotation". The last time this happened for a female artist was in 1989 with PRINCESS PRINCESS, and 1978 for a female idol group with Pink Lady. "Beginner" was certified million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for a shipment of one million copies. AKB48 also holds the #5 spot on the Oricon yearly singles chart with "Ponytail to Chouchou" and #8 with "Chance no Junban". Their 2006 single "Aitakatta" has also appeared at #36 on the 2010 RIAJ digital tracks chart.

On January 1, 2011, subunit no3b released their self-titled debut album, no3b.