was a Japanese female idol group, and a subgroup of Japanese female idol group

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

. Under

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

, the group debuted in January 2009 with the

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

single " Hatsukoi Dash/Aoi Mirai."

History

In October 2008, Yasushi Akimoto announced that he was going to revive the 1980s girl group Ushirogami Hikaretai, using four members of

and was renaming the group to Watarirouka Hashiritai. The group debuted under

releasing a

single, "Hatsukoi Dash/Aoi Mirai" in January 2009. The single entered the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

single chart at number ten. In April the group released their second single, "Yaruki Hanabi" which charted at number nine. In November 2009, the group released their third single "Kanpeki Gū no ne" which was used as the ending theme song for the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

version of the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

'' Fairy Tail''. This single had more success than the other two singles, as it sold over 23,200 copies in its first week and charted at number seven. In February 2010, Ayaka Kikuchi joined the group changing the roster from four members to five. Their first single in 2010, " AkKanbe Bashi," reached number 1 on

charts. On June 30, 2010, two members from AKB48,

Misaki Iwasa is a Japanese idol. She is a former member of the Japanese idol group AKB48 and enka singer. Her nickname is Wasamin. Her talent agency is Nagara Productions. She was also a member of the sub-unit Watarirouka Hashiritai 7. Career 2008 * Decem ...

and

Mika Komori Mika is a given name, a nickname and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People known just as Mika * Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr. * Mika (footbal ...

, were added to Watarirouka Hashiritai to form "Watarirouka Hashiritai7", but the name applied to their "radio-only" activities, as two singles released on and after June 30 were under the name of "Watarirouka Hashiritai", not as "7" since two newcomers were not included. They eventually debuted as "7" with a single "Valentine Kiss", a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Sayuri Kokushō is a Japanese actress, singer, and tarento. She was an original member of Onyanko Club. She works for the talent management firm Sony Music Artists. Her debut single, "Valentine Kiss", is the most popular Valentine's Day song in Japan. Brief ...

's single, originally written by

Yasushi Akimoto is a Japanese record producer, lyricist, and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, maki ...

and released 25 years ago. Natsumi Hirajima announced on the group's official blog that a new single will be released by "Watarirouka Hashiritai 7" on August 3, 2011. Kikuchi Ayaka announced on July 4, 2011 that the title of the song is " Hetappi Wink". Both Natsumi Hirajima and Kikuchi Ayaka described it as "a summer-ish, energetic and bright song". This will be the second time a single is released with the "7" in the group's name. On June 25, 2012, Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 took part in Yubi Matsuri, an idol festival produced by Rino Sashihara from

. The concert was held at

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...

before a crowd of 8,000 people and featured such girl groups as Idoling!!!, Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku, Super Girls, Tokyo Girls' Style, Nogizaka46,

Passpo were a Japanese idol rock girl group under Platinum Production, Platinum Passport. Their first major single, "Shoujo Hikou", reached List of Oricon number-one singles of 2011, number 1 at the Oricon charts on May 16, 2011. They also are producin ...

, Buono!, and

Momoiro Clover Z is a Japanese idol girl group, commonly abbreviated as MCZ or . The four members of MCZ are known for energetic performances, incorporating elements of ballet, gymnastics, and action movies. MCZ is notable for being the first female group to ho ...

. On August 24, 2012, during the

AKB48 in TOKYO DOME ~1830m no Yume~ AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with its ...

concert tour members Aika Ota and Haruka Nakagawa were transferred to HKT48 and

JKT48 JKT48 (read as "J. K. T. forty-eight") is an Indonesian-Japanese Japanese idol, idol girl group whose name is derived from its based city of Jakarta and the Japanese idol group AKB48. Formed in 2011, the group is the first AKB48 sister group outs ...

respectively. On November 13, 2013, it was revealed that the group will disband on Christmas and at the same time, release a best-of album. On February 9, 2014, their final concert was held at ZeppDiver City, Tokyo.

Members

* (

member on February 9, 2014) * * * ( HKT48 member on February 9, 2014) * (Watarirouka Hashiritai 7) * (Watarirouka Hashiritai 7)

Provisional member

* (Former AKB48 Team B member, SDN48 member) on March 10, 2012

Former Member

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Watarirouka Hashiritai Official Site

Watarirouka Hashiritai Official Blog
* {{Authority control AKB48 sub-units Japanese girl groups Japanese idol groups Musical groups established in 2009 Musical groups disestablished in 2013 Pony Canyon artists Japanese pop music groups 2008 establishments in Japan Musical groups from Tokyo