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AKB48 Spawns 3rd Sister Idol Group in Fukuoka: HKT48

Tokyo's all-female idol group AKB48 will spawn a third sister group, HKT48, in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka this fall. The announcement came during an AKB48 mass handshake event for the "Sakura no Ki ni Narou" single on Sunday. 54-year-old producer Yasushi Akimoto already extended his brand concept of "idols you can meet" from Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district to two other areas: SKE48 in Nagoya's Sakae and NMB48 in Osaka's Namba.

Applicants for HKT48 must be female, 11 to 22 years old, unattached to another production, and have the means to travel everyday to the HKT48 theater in the central Chūō ward of Fukuoka. The application for the live auditions are available from the new group's site. Aspiring idols have until May 31 to submit an application with two photographs (taken with the last month), and then they must survive the application screening, interviews, and the final judging rounds for dancing and singing. The successful candidates will then receive lessons before their Fall debut.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Update: Typo fixed. Thanks, enurtsol.