Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 48. Chapters: AKB48 members, AKB48 songs, Beginner, Heavy Rotation, Ponytail to Chouchou, Chance no Junban, Natsuki Sato, Sakura no Shiori, Sakura no Hanabiratachi, Yuko Oshima, Tomomi Itano, Rina Chikano, Watarirouka Hashiritai, Haruna Kojima, Sakura no Ki ni Nar, Atsuko Maeda, Yuki Kashiwagi, Sayaka Akimoto, Manami Oku, No3b, Queen & Elizabeth, Mai Oshima, Rina Nakanishi, Erena Ono, Sumire Sat, Yasushi Akimoto, Mayumi Uchida, Chocolove from AKB48, Minami Minegishi, Not Yet, Sayaka Nakaya, Aika ta. Excerpt: AKB48 is a Japanese girl idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group is named after Akihabara (Akiba for short), the area in Tokyo where, on the 8th floor of a Don Quijote store, AKB48'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 performs in the theater every day, on Saturday and Sunday more than once. AKB48 holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's "largest pop group." It is currently divided into four teams: Team A, Team K, and Team B with 16 members each and Team 4 with 10 members, summing up to a total of 58 full members as of June 7, 2011. Additionally, there are a number of aspiring members, who also perform in the theater as Team Kenky sei . Each team has their own stage show. Since 2005, when AKB48 was founded, Yasushi Akimoto created several more groups: SKE48, based at a theater in the Sakae area of Nagoya, SDN48, which is intended to have a more mature image, and NMB48. Another interesting concept, first put into action in 2009, are elections in which fans vote to determine the members 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...