A Tribute to Singer "Ayaka Umeda" of girl group NMB48

Ayaka Umeda, the sub-captain of NMB48’s Team B2 has announced that she will be graduating from the group. This news comes after Rina Kondo announced her graduation. There’s so many graduations of members these days right? The announcement was made on January 23, 2016. That was the second day of the event called AKB48 Group Request Hour Set List Best 100 2016. The event took place at Tokyo Dome City Hall. Umeda wrote on Twitter: “AKB48 and NMB48 have made me shine over the past 10 years. It also allowed me to meet my fans. Moreover, I met members with whom I was able to share my dreams. I am happy." This article will also be a tribute to Umeda as well.

Umeda began her career with AKB48 back in 2006 as part of its second generation in 2006. She would transfer to NMB48 following the big AKB48 Group Shuffle in February 2014. At the first writing of this tribute, there were three Japanese idols that announced their graduation plans. These three idols or girls were Sae Miyazawa, Aki Takajo, and Kanako Kadowaki.

Umeda, now 28 is a native of Fukuoka, Japan. Her debut single with AKB48 was the one called Aitakatta. She sang on the A-side and B-side singles of that song. The B-side for Aitakatta is called Dakedo. I give credit to Atsuko Maeda for her contributions because Atsuko opened the door for other girls to excel as members of AKB48. Umeda is one of these members.

There are so many significant events that have happened in these last ten years that Umeda has been a member of AKB48 and NMB48. For example, AKB48 sang the theme song for the NHK Morning drama called 365 Days of Paper Airplanes. That song is called Asa ga Kita. AKB48’s third album Tsugi no Ashiato would go on to sell 962,000 copies in its first week of release. And then what made that success even more remarkable was the fact that Tsugi no Ashiato would go on to become a million selling album! In 2015, AKB48 would hold a joint concert with JKT48 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The two groups would sing the song Aitakatta. There has also been the creation of the group NGT48. More importantly, AKB48 has established itself as a major pop cultural icon. With their regular theatrical performances and dance moves, they have attracted such a large following that even their record sales have reached unprecedented heights. In December 2015, AKB48 had sold 36,158,000 copies of their singles! In her last AKB48 General Election participation, Umeda finished with ranking of #56 her lowest finish. However, with the way that she opened up doors for other AKB48 members, hopefully this will be her greatest achievement. Umeda would graduate for good from AKB48 in March 2016.

Congratulations to the beautiful Ayaka Umeda as she has done it all. She has been a member of the most popular Japanese girl group. She has done modeling for the famous Weekly Playboy Magazine in Japan. She has also served as a team sub-captain in another group. Even though she has not been as popular as other members, she has proven to me why she deserves so much praise as she wraps up her career as an idol singer.