Miyawaki Sakura, Yabuki Nako, and Honda Hitomi Suspend Activities to Focus on IZ*ONE

Miyawaki Sakura (HKT48), Yabuki Nako (HKT48), and Honda Hitomi (AkB48) suspend their activities with their respective Japanese groups while promoting with new KPop group, IZ*ONE, for two years and six months. This comes according to a statement from their new label, Off the Record, released September 24th.

IZ*ONE was formed through the MNET reality show, “Produce 48” which was the third season of the “Produce 101” franchise.

Miyawaki (Age 20) has been a member of HKT48 Team H since the inception of the group in 2011. She has been a popular member from the beginning and was ranked 3rd out of 120 members in this years Sousenkyo (an annual election where fans vote for their favorite member).

Yabuki (Age 17) has been a member of HKT48 Team H since their 3rd generation in 2013. She has recently become a very popular member and ranked 9th in this years Sousenkyo.

Honda (Age 16) started as a member of AKB48 Team 8 in 2014 as the representative from the Tochigi prefecture. She has held a concurrent position in AKB48 Team B since 2017. She ranke82nd in this years Sousenkyo.

Nobody knows how the 48G will be affected by these members leaving. Miyawaki was often a center of singles, and was slated as a possible winner of Sousenkyo this year before the results were announced. Yabuki has also gained massive popularity in the past couple of years and was often on the A-sides of singles. Honda is less known than the other girls, however her popularity due to IZ*ONE has been growing. All three will leave a hole in their respective groups, and nobody knows how those holes are going to be filled. This does, however, leave an opening for younger girls to shine as they won’t have to compete, especially with Miyawaki and Yabuki.

-Molly