Applications for Auditions of 14th Generation Kenkyuusei Now Available

According to Togasaki, manager of AKB48, the management is now accepting audition applications for the 14th Generation Kenkyuusei.


The full post is translated below:

Today we will start accepting Kenkyuusei applications for 14th Generation.  Application period ends at the end of the month, on April 30th, 2012.
For details, please see a later post.
Today I had some questions from people who want to leave good impressions at auditions, so I'll answer them here.
1 - What kind of people will make it?
--> There is no clear standard for that.  If we had one, then there wouldn't be members who audition multiple times and finally made the cut.
2 - What if I am not good at singing and dancing?  Will I still be okay?
--> According to Akimoto-san, the original concept of AKB48 is for your "growth to be seen" in the theater performances.  Like Takahashi Minami, who is very small at 148cm, who could not dance in the very beginning and had to stay longer to practice more.Like Maeda Atsuko, who cried and refused to sing the solo parts of "Nagisa no Cherry".AKB48 is looking for people who "are willing to work hard without thinking twice", rather than "talented people".However, there are people who wrote "I admire so-and-so from AKB48 and would love to perform with them on stage", and we don't think "admiring so-and-so" will encourage growth.  Instead we are looking for people who write down "I want to be admired by people".
This is our first audition since Maeda Atsuko, who has been working hard as AKB48's center since December 8th, 2005, announced her graduation.
We're excited to see what kind of applicants will show up.We will do our best to look at every application.Thank you for your continued support.
We will also announce this on AKBINGO! tonight, so please watch that too!