Akimoto Yasushi on SDN Graduation and Mitsumune Kaoru

On February 22nd, Akimoto Yasushi spoke on his Google+ page regarding SDN48's graduation on March 31st.

He mentioned that he has received a petition from the fans to retract the graduation of all SDN48 members. However, he cited the lack of an age limit in SDN as a problem. Without one, members can stay in SDN forever and there wouldn't be any graduations.

https://plus.google.com/113474433041552257864/posts/V9pYhuA1jbp
Translated by emptystring

I received a petition to retract the decision to graduate all SDN members.  I received a huge collection of signatures and I was happy to see them.
I really would like to sympathize.

But the problem is, SDN is unlike AKB, where members can decide for themselves when to graduate.
There is no age limit, so they could conceivably stay in SDN forever.
Because I can't decide who should stay and who should graduate, so I have been considering new careers for all the members.
There is a lot to think about.
Thank you, everyone.

So what do you think about this?

Honestly I don't see why he has to graduate the members. These members really have skill. And I mean real skill. It's a real waste that the 3rd generation members have to graduate so quickly after joining. Especially Tojima Hana and Komatani Hitomi, who took a second chance at being an idol after graduating from AKB on 2008.

If he absolutely has to graduate them, why can't he graduate the members by generation? That will at least let the newew members have more time in the group.


In a later post, he also talked about Mitsumune Kaoru, who has been getting a lot of media time with gravure shoots, commercials and TV shows:

https://plus.google.com/113474433041552257864/posts/iLU75UBJqDe
Translated by emptystring

Lately I've often been asked about Kaoru - "Are you pushing her more than usual?"
Since we're on this topic, I'll answer it here once and for all.
Her TV, gravure and commercial appearances were all requests from the other side.
I did not force them.
She is still a Kenkyuusei and it's great that she's already getting so much attention.
Kondo from Shukan Playboy or Settsu from Nikkan Sports have all talked about Kaoru's charm.
I am looking forward to how this will turn out.

At least we now know the reason for all the push. But still, the scale of the pushing is really incredible give that she is still a kenkyuusei.


There is actually a lot more to this post - he made a series of 4 "passionate" posts this morning, mostly talking about potentials and going after one's dreams - full translations of these posts can be found at Bilingual48.