AKB48 Cuts Ties With International Sister Group SNH48

In a sudden and shocking move, AKS (the management company behind AKB48 and its sister groups) announced that its Chinese sister group, SNH48 (based in Shanghai), has violated its contract and has cut ties with the international sister group. This move comes after an interesting series of developments from both the AKS and SNH48 camps.

Recently the popularity of SNH48 brought it to develop sister groups of its own. These were announced this past March and we saw the introductions of BJE48 (based in Beijing) and GNZ48 (based in Guangzhou). AKS has gone out of its way to state that these sister groups are not part of the 48G family.

Shortly after these announcements, AKS made a move of its own in China, allying itself with KuGuo Music (a digital music provider) and Zhongcai Group (an investment firm) in the hopes of expanding its core AKB48 franchise into China on its own terms. At the time of AKS’ move the future of SNH48 was much debated and these actions were thought to threaten SNH48’s status as an official international sister group.

As of now, SNH48 has been removed AKB48’s official website and an official statement has been made. The statement does read that AKS is reevaluating its relationship with SNH48 so there is hope, however slim, that this break is not as permanent as it first appears.

SNH48 has made no official comment.

-alavic_222 (Manuel)

Official Announcement: http://www.akb48.co.jp/news/

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