On July 20th, AKB48 held the first day of their 5 major dome tour at Fukuoka Yafuoku! Dome, where they made a surprise announcement of the formation of a new Kenkyuusei unit.�

This announcement was originally going to be made later this month during their Sapporo Dome concert. The group's first Kenkyuusei unit will be comprised of 7 members including AKB48's 14th Generation Kenkyuuseis�Kojima Mako (16), Nishino Miki (14), and�Okada Nana (15), SKE48's 6th Generation Kenkyuusei�Kitagawa Ryoha (14), �HKT48's 2nd Generation Kenkyuuseis Tashima Meru (13) and Tomonaga Mio (15), and NMB48's Kenkyuusei�Shibuya Nagisa (16).�

On this day, SKE48's Kitagawa and NMB48's Shibuya were absent because the concert was held in Fukuoka. When the group's general manager Togasaki Tomonobu made the announcement, the 5 members stood still in amazement. Tashima, who was given the microphone, called out to Sashihara Rino�(20), "Sashiko-chan, what should I do!" In response, she made the crowd laugh with, "Go home, go home! I don't know anything either."�

Okada expressed, "I heard this for the first time, but my name is Nana and it's a 7-member unit. So I think it's fate." The unit will perform for the first time during AKB48's upcoming Sapporo Dome concert on the 31st.

Source & Image: Oricon