Who Is Karen Iwata of the Girl Group Akb48?

In the long history of famous Japanese girl group AKB48, there may be members of the group that some fans may not be familiar with. One such example of an “unknown” AKB48 member is Karen Iwata who graduated from the group on March 15, 2016, almost three years ago. I had heard her name briefly but will now write about her because she has been making the news recently & the fact that AKB48 is one of my favorite pop music groups.

Karen joined AKB48 under some very interesting circumstances. She would join AKB48 in April 2011 as a training member, one month after one of the worst natural disasters in world history as the nation of Japan suffered a terrible earthquake. It would be on March 23, 2012 that she would be transferred to AKB48’s Team 4. She would be tensferred back to Team A in August 2012 after the Tokyo Dome Team Shuffle.

She graduated from the group as one of the group’s youngest members and she is another current or former Japanese idol singer that is from the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. The other Japanese idol singer that is from Miyagi is of course Ayumi Ishida of the group Morning Musume 19.

On March 9, 2019, she was involved in a traffic accident which caused her to have a fracture. She had been scheduled to attend the event called Sendai Bousai Mirai Forum 2019 on the next day in her home city of Sendai. She was also not able to make an appearance at Iwate Menkoi TV / Sendai Housou / Fukushima TV program. It has been revealed that Iwata, 20, was injured when she came into contact with a motorcycle and fell down.

• Karen’s hobbies include dancing, watching movies & anime as well as playing the guitar.
• Her favorite colors include dark blue, red & yellow.
• She really enjoys tap & jazz styles of dance.
• She really enjoys consuming sports drinks & avocado sandwiches.
• Art is her favorite subject.
• She is a good friend of Sumire Sato of the girl group SKE48.
• On a related note, Karen was supposed to transfer to SKE48 and join Sumire Sato but due to health problems in her family, she was not able to do it.
• Karen is a former member of the unit called NO NAME which is a unit that had voice actors from the animated series called AKB0048. One of the most famous members in this unit was Mayu Watanabe.
• She is not able to handle eating natto.
• She is considered the former ace of the 12^th generation. This is very interesting because she is not the first AKB48 idol to be the ace of a generation of members.
• She took part in AKB48’s relief efforts when that big earthquake struck Japan in 2011.
• Before she auditioned for AKB48, the earthquake struck the house that she was living in so she had to live in a shelter for a few days.
• As a result of this, Karen was the only AKB48 trainee to be interviewed in Documentary of AKB48 Show Must Go On.
• After her graduation from AKB48, Karen played the role of “Maria”in the musical called Maria to Midori no Princess along with Mizuki Yamauchi and Yamauchi would join AKB48 as a 16^th generation member.
• Her future ambition is to be a stage actress on Broadway or to do voice acting.