AKB48

AKB48 is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara district of Tokyo, which houses the group's theater. Yasushi Akimoto, AKB48's producer, intended to develop a girl group with its own theater and daily performances so fans could always see them live (which is not the case with usual pop groups giving occasional concerts and seen on television). This "idols you can meet" concept comprises teams that can cycle performances and perform at multiple events at the same time, as well as "handshake" events where fans may meet members of the group. Akimoto has taken the AKB48 model and applied it to several girl groups in the Mainland, China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

AKB48 has been described as a cultural phenomenon. They are one of Japan's highest-earning musical artists and the world's fifth-best-selling female group. For example, their 2012 record and DVD/Blu-ray sales totaled $226 million, propelling them to the top of the artist ranking. The group has sold over 60 million records, including over 6 million albums, as of April 2019. AKB48's singles have topped the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart at least 35 times, with at least 30 of them selling over a million copies apiece, making the group the biggest selling musical act in Japan in terms of singles sold. According to Billboard / Soundscan, their best-selling track, "Teacher Teacher", sold over 3 million copies in 2018. Between 2010 and 2020, AKB48's singles occupied at least the top two spots of the Oricon Yearly Singles Chart.