entertainment

AKB48 monthly newspaper on sale

40 Comments

A monthly AKB48 group newspaper is being published by Nikkan Sports.

This month, the 32-page tabloid reports on the group's charity activities in the Tohoku area, as well as carrying features on Miyuki Watanabe from NMB48, and an interview with sumo grand champion Hakuho, conducted by Asuka Kuramochi from AKB48.

The tabloid also carries AKB48 members' photos and articles for AKB48 fans. It costs 300 yen.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

40 Comments
Login to comment

Awesome!.. 50 year old perverts will be happy about this.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Awesome! Yeah, the girls are cute but the guys who are making bucket-loads of cash are my true heroes.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

i wonder what will be the average IQ of people buying this new deluxe, need-to-have tabloid

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

No more, pleeeeeeeeeeeze!

5 ( +9 / -4 )

I just checked and it was not April 1st, you got to be kidding me, maybe not. AKB48 newspaper. Wow, what's next. Exile magazine. This is getting ridiculous but i'm cool with it. When in ROME, do as the Romans do.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Has anyone ever noticed that the majority of Japanese tunes and most of the big hits are the same recipe of chords?? C G Am Em F C F G or Am F G C?? That's why most foregners who aren't comatose thinks, " Wow this rubbish all sounds the same!" Well these chords which are guaranteed to give you a hit are employed by the music boss puppeteers..... Grab your guitar and have a strum....... interesting and true!

2 ( +5 / -3 )

This newspaper is obviously one big promotion/advertisement.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Japan should just go ahead and re-name the country AKB48. Its the only thing that they seem to be concerned with.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

The pages will need to be like a running shirts fabric..quick drying and odor resistant

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Can I use it safely in my Litter-Box?? I wouldn't want my kitty to start "Spazzin"!!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

50 year old perverts will be happy about this.

Can't have an article about AKB48 without a comment containing the word pervert...as if the guys who keep saying it would not happily have trists with half the band! I can only imagine that the impossibility of having a trist with even one has sparked some major denial for purposes of ego defense, thus the pervert accusation.

20 years ago a guy had to actually had to do something, like flash himself, to be called a pervert. Seems like now all you have to do is be a red-blooded male.

I find the obsession with AKB48 to be creepy, yes. But not in a sexual way. Its not the attraction that is creepy. Its the obsession. Its a bit like stalking. And that is what obsessed fans should be called; closet stalkers, not perverts. But of course not all are.

There is of course another angle. If you are interested in young females (normal hetero male) it helps to have something to talk about. If you can regale a young woman with tales of AKB48, it might just get you somewhere. This mag could improve your game.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

This newspaper is obviously one big promotion/advertisement.

Of course it is; AKB48 is a business, same as any other.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

oh yeah~ i want this! (づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I find the obsession with AKB48 to be creepy, yes. But not in a sexual way. Its not the attraction that is creepy. Its the obsession. Its a bit like stalking. And that is what obsessed fans should be called; closet stalkers, not perverts. But of course not all are

familienproblem - So a 50 year-old man with an obsession with 15 year-old girls is not creepy. Gotcha.

but you fail to identify the root of the obsession, which we all know is sexual. There goes your theory.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

I can't wait to read the interview with Hakuho.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

pure insanity, DO NOT waste trees for this!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Easy money!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I overhead some Japanese at work talking about this. I can hardly imagine grown men at home talking about any kind of pop music. There are much more appropriate things to listen to at that age e.g. Huey Lewis and The News

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Ok, enough is enough. We turn on the TV....AKB48 is there. We ride the train.....AKB48 advertisement is there. We turn on the radio...AKB48 is there. We walk the streets....we see AKB48 poster. Enough, please....

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The Beatles fever did it to England and Elvis in the US. I mean I remember dudes wearing Michael Jackson jackets in 84, even the glove in public. Guess they have not gone over the edge so much yet. The country is in some sort of drunken pop girl trance at the moment that is for sure. Except those guys actually wrote songs, sang and played an instrument :s

1 ( +2 / -1 )

PS... did check that question I asked. They take about 3 hrs of basic high school classes per week. No homework and just need to pick up the diploma when Mom can do it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So a 50 year-old man with an obsession with 15 year-old girls is not creepy. Gotcha.

Hoserfella- No 15 year old girls in AKB48. Why do you insist there are?

Also, I clearly said that I found the obsession with AKB48 to be creepy. I used both the words obsession and creepy. What part did you not understand?

but you fail to identify the root of the obsession, which we all know is sexual. There goes your theory.

First it would help to understand what I wrote and you obviously don't. Just like most stalkers, yes, there is a sexual element. But the problem is the stalking, not the sexual element.

And most fans of AKB48 are not men over 50. I am more worried about the anti-AKB48 obsession myself, because it keeps generating wildly false information, from the age of the fans, to the age of the members, to the insisitance that people wrote the opposite of what they actually wrote.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I guess most of the people complaining about AKB48 weren't here when it was the same thing 10 years ago, but with Morning Musume?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

hoserfella, which members (names please) of AKB48 are 15?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

They might not be 15 years old, but you must admit that the way they dress, behave and talk is being promoted as in the typical high-school girl fashion. I know it's all marketing and stuff, but when you see grown up men being obsessed with this pattern, it's not difficult to understand why we often hear about lunatics and creeps in news.

Yes, i don't mind at all when i see a 10 years old girl singing their songs, but i freak out when i notice 40 years old guys do the same thing.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Antonios_M.

How do you feel about the "Barely legal", "Just turned 18", etc publications or even how Disney, etc uses teens to attract customers?

I recall some famous music stars in the west that were "sex-objects" before they turned 18 too.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

It's me

Alright, there are similar cases worldwide, but i have not seen anywhere in the world the same overexploitation of this "young and innocent" trend that is going on in the Japanese market. It is just too much over here. Personally, i am against censorship of any kind and i believe in the free market, but it is disturbing - to say the least.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@My2sense the only difference is that the Beatles, Elvis and M Jackson had talent.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Just the headline is ridiculous enough. No need to read the rest...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As veer people say "what about other countries blah blah blah...".

Two wrongs don't make a right and foreign artists are not mentioned in this article. This is a great money making scheme by clever men who know how to exploit the girls and the childish brains that pay forsuch rubbish.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Familian.. sorry but i agree with Hoserfella and it looks like he agrees with me... Your posts are very confusing...The problem is the stalking not the sexual element?.... but the obsession is creepy?.... Makes no sense at all... THIS whole thing is sexual... 45-50 year old men attracted, obsessed with girls who may be 18 but look like they are 15 and wearing the schoolgirl outfit... What are they stalking them for if it's not sexual?.. their fabulous singing talent?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Mr.Sushi- couldn't have said it better myself. AKB may not technically be children, but they act and dress like 13 year olds, satisfying the perverts out there who like that sort of thing

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

AKB may not technically be children

So you admit that your prior claim that AKB members were 15 years old was wrong?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

j4p4nFTW - If a girl looks and acts like she's 13, I can be forgiven for thinking shes 15. Either way, it has no bearing on the fact that anyone over the age of 20 who is a fan - has got the IQ of a sock.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I see a Pulitzer Prize in the making.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So you admit that your prior claim that AKB members were 15 years old was wrong?

That would start a cascade of soul searching much like pulling out a card from the bottom of a house of cards.

I have never seen such a ball of cultural and moral relativism mixed with so much cognitive dissonance. Suddenly everyone is supposed to react to how old they appear and appear to act according to a select few judgmental holier-than-thou types and their actual ages have become irrelevant.

I would not even bother trying to form an opinion on if they act 13, as if there is some universal standard anyway. But my image of a 13 year old is a boy who thinks he knows everything and knows what is best for everyone in a one-size-fits-all type manner, and is very insistent and persistent as if his personal opinions made without tolerance, experience, or research should be taken as hard fact. Case in point:

the fact that anyone over the age of 20 who is a fan - has got the IQ of a sock.

I am not a fan of their music or their personalities. I don't know anything about those aspects. But I am a fan of their visual appeal. Sue me.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

AKB may not technically be children, but they act and dress like 13 year olds, satisfying the perverts out there who like that sort of thing

Reminds me of Britney Spears in Oops I Did It Again...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan should just go ahead and re-name the country AKB48. Its the only thing that they seem to be concerned with.

America haven’t change his name to NFL yet?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Reminds me of Britney Spears in Oops I Did It Again... 

I may be mistaken, but most of Britney's fans were elementary school students or teenagers, mostly girls. As to AKB48, most of their fans are grown up men. I have one 60-something old JP colleague who proudly says how he sings their songs everytime he goes karaoke...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@ j4p4nFTW Maria Abe was 15 at the time she was announced to be part of the group. Also, several "trainees" are even younger: Rika Suzuki (13), Miyu Ōmori (12), and several others. I suggest you Wiki/ Google things yourself first instead of asking others for simple, easily accessed information such as the above.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites