37 year old mum becomes newest member of AKB48

As reported earlier, AKB48 was looking for a 30 year old(and above) member to join them for a time limited collaboration with Glico Japan.

A series of audtions had been taking place offline, and the ultimate winner was revealed to be Tsukamoto Mariko, a 37 year old housewife and mother of 2.

She was picked from a pool of over 5000 applications, which included comedians like Kintaro and ex Morning Musume member Ichii Sayaka.

Tsukamoto will star as the center of Glico’s commercial for Papico together with Mayuyu etc and will take part in live events with AKB48  through August 2014.

“I want to cheer up all the moms out there who are busy raising kids, like me,” she said in a statement Thursday.

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The mum seems like a typical Japanese wife, mild-mannered and kind. I don’t think she’ll have any problems fitting in with the rest. But she seemed like she doesn’t know much about AKB before this and her kids are too young to appreciate an idol mum…so i wonder why she auditioned in the first place. I mean, i was expecting at least a fan to win this.

AKB48 is looking for new member,to debut as center of Papico’s new CM

AKB48 announced that they are looking for a new member(age 30 and above) to take on the center role in Papico’s new CM starring Watanabe Mayu, Nishino Miki, Okada Nana and Shimazaki Haruka. There are no other conditions attached, so the new member could be a married woman, a housewife, single or even a comedian like Kintaro.

As the oldest newbie, she will be branded as a “mature idol” and will take part in theater performances, concerts and handshake events together with the rest of the regular members. As this is a time limited collaboration with Glico Japan, the contract of this member will end on 31 August, and she will graduate like the rest of ex-AKB members.

A representative from Glico said “As the product has a childish image, we thought about appealing to adults as well, and so discussed with AKB.”

A representative from AKB said “With the addition of this member, we hope to expand our fanbase amongst her generation.”

When asked about the kind of member she’d welcome into the group, Watanabe Mayu said “I hope teachers can join. We work as a team so i hope those with related experience can come in and guide us.”

Fellow member Okada Nana recounted a conversation she had with her mum, who was considering the idea of taking the auditions.

“If she happens to pass the audition, i want us to appear on stage as a mother-daughter combi,” she said.

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