AKB48 New Year greeting cards go on sale

WOW - gotta go, no time to waste - gotta get me some.

So their 15 minutes are not up yet? What's next? Will they be pictured on ladies' hygienic products?

Perfect greeting card for a teenage boy or creepy 40 year old salary-man!

3rd one in the second row is cute. What is her name? Hahaha

Hey Kisarazu, I am 57, but not a salary man.

MaboDofuls: "Hey Kisarazu, I am 57, but not a salary man."

So long as you're not obsessed with them to the point of sickness, as many an oyaji here seem to be. :)

Anyway, the only good thing about this is that the return address will be written on the card, so you can excommunicate whomever sent it to you before burning it.

MaboDofuls,Nothing wrong in being a 57 year old AKB 48 fan.

My point is if you look at them and think they are cute like my daughter>good :)

If you look at them and think i'd like to take one of them out for dinner on Valentines day>not so good!

That`s awesome. I wonder why IKB is really popular among japanese people.

"3rd one in the second row is cute"

Heck, they're all cute, and they all have great legs!

I am sure those cards together with the Christmas cakes will be sold out in no time. When are those girls finally thinking about making AKB48 chewing gum, then they can stick forever on us.

My point is if you look at them and think they are cute like my daughter>good :) If you look at them and think i'd like to take one of them out for dinner on Valentines day > not so good!

Right. Say you look at them and think - "Hey, the one in the middle looks like a girl I just tried to pick up over by the school playground" - I think it's safe to say - that wouldn't be good.

I can think of a better way to send new year's greetings.

gelendestrasse - What?

I knew I would get some good responses.

Actually I have never really seen them perform. When they show up on the boob tube, I flip the channel.

So many tone deaf singers on the tube here, that it is a real turn off.

I'm in love!! I love you akb48!!

@wolfpack great comment!! LoL!!

I'm waiting for the cards from the Yoko Ono charity concert and the CD.

NIce one Riffraff.

^o^ super cute!!

If I actually receive such a card from my friends, I will have to think about breaking off the relationship. I don't hate AKB, but it is not suitable for greeting cards.

There will be a limited edition available for 30,240 YEN if you want all AKB48 members.

Say happy new year with a card to fap with.

I should put my picture on a card and mail it to all of you!

This year's 'must have' item!

@JapanGal I

should put my picture on a card and mail it to all of you! Gal

That would be nice to see how you look JapanGal :) I like how confident u are !

Thank you MikeDiab

Being confident in this world is important for sure.

My friends have their faces on stamps, and lots of families have New Years cards made, so nothing wrong with me wearing a sexy blue elf suit correct?

Mikediab (via JapanGal): "I like how confident u are !"

Indeed. Confidence makes for beautiful, not the other way around (or at least, those who depend on beauty for confidence are going to be in trouble if not now then down the road).

As for the AKB48 stuff, I was commenting in jest above. I DO think, however, people are going overboard over a band that has very little talent. They can't sing, they don't write their own music, they don't play instruments... I don't think they deserve the fan-fare. Fortunately, as with many that have come before them, these 100 or so young ladies will be a thing of the past before long, and these cards will be shelved along with everything else they produced.

But, to each their own.

Louis CK once said "I don't care about anyones kids other than my own". He said it way more rude and used more swearing, but that about sums up how I feel about AKB48 - annoying kids (or adults playing kids), and annoying people adoring them.

Thanks Smith.

There is nothing wrong with being confident and forward. Does ruffle some feathers here though in Japan.

But so do sexy legs. Guys that start at the bottom and work their way up to the face are easy to manipulate. Just as the owners of this group does the same thing. Not just kids, but lots of other Japanese secretly admire them, or wish they could have been them. Nice fantasy but not reality.

There is money to be made out there and if others do not want to make it, thank you. I will.

Have a great weekend. Surf sucks so enjoy the sun anyways.

@smithinjapan "I DO think, however, people are going overboard over a band that has very little talent. They can't sing, they don't write their own music, they don't play instruments... I don't think they deserve the fan-fare."

The reason you don't get the appeal is you're too intelligent. I honestly think that the adoration of trivial fare like AKB48 is a litmus test for intelligence.

HEADLINE NEWS

TEPCO considers dumping more tainted water into sea ( 48 ) Man arrested over hit-and-run that left victim's body in drainage ditch ( 8 ) AKB48 New Year greeting cards go on sale ( 29 ) EU summit could determine course of world economy: Azumi ( 7 )

That's some headline news there!

Haha Jamie. Cute, but that is reality here in Japan.

KisarazuBoy76, any 57 year old who wouldn't like to have a Valentine's day dinner with one of these girls is a hypocrite.

Older men having lusting for young ladies is not perverted - it's natural. But hypocrite Westerners love to pretend otherwise.

If you look at them and think i'd like to take one of them out for dinner on Valentines day>not so good!

I don't know much about them. But what my eyes say is that they are all fairly physically attractive. What would not be so good is to doubt one's eyes, and quickly do a web search for biographical information in order to try and make an adjustment to one's eyes and perception. That would mental.

They are all cute in every sense of the word. Its just the way it is. The law remains the law, but normal male perception remains normal male perception.

they are all cute. japanese woman is the best in the world. but when you are so horrendously greedy that you try to make money out of every single opportunity, then you're really nothing but a bad joke with a pretty face and legs.

@amida. Maybe older men like younger women, but not school kids. That's just sick.

Of course, old sick geezers like Berlusconi want 23 year old "models", but that's a very different thing from lusting after young women dressed up as school girls to make them look even younger.

@TakahiroDomingo "japanese woman is the best in the world"

If there's only one, then what are all those other women in Japan then? And, where do you keep her?

My university students seem to revile ABK48 as "can't sing" and "no talent". I think they pretty much understand the talento machine.

top row, far left got my " attention ".

Maybe older men like younger women, but not school kids. That's just sick.

That is just your opinion. The only basis you have to label anything related to AKB48 as sick is your own gut. None I see can properly be called "kids", and school age is a completely arbitrary concept that expanded simply because labor unions did not want competition from teenagers.

I suggest you follow a policy of live and let live. If you don't find them all attractive fine. Don't try to force your tastes on us or insult our tastes. Its rude. You are no better than any of us.

yeah @The_the_in_the_way! totally agree with you ("I suggest you follow a policy of live and let live")

"They can't sing"

Of course they can sing, and they can sing well.

@JapanGal

I should put my picture on a card and mail it to all of you!

I assume you are a 'mature' woman (or at least not jail bait). If so, I would be happy to be on your New Year's card list. You too could one day have legions of fans...

Wolfpack, the poster you are referring to is in fact a male. The fascination regarding these little girls amongst many Japanese and lolita loving posters here shows one of the things that is wrong with modern society. Factory line music with disposible band members, ever rotating to find the next favourite for the shallow thinkers.

@KobeGrandad Well, it sure would be a disappointment - if not creepy - if JapanGal was not actually a "gal". But hey, let's all just try got get along ehh!

I would expect that some posters here may actually be young people themselves so it doesn't bother me that some get excited about the group. I got real excited about some singers, bands, actresses, etc. back when I was a youngster that I would not want to admit to now. But back then at least, it was more age appropriate for me.

AKB48 are in fact a phenomenon in Japan now just as say Brittany Spears was several years ago in the US (unfortunately). From that standpoint, I find it interesting what they do and the reaction they get from posters here on JT. I think they are harmless for the most part but do agree that they push the envelope when it comes to the sexual/loli stuff. By all accounts, this seems well accepted in modern Japanese society; which is troubling to me and apparently you as well. Some of what their management (along with many other segments of the entertainment industry in Japan) seem to be doing is sexualizing underage girls in a way to actively seek out the oyagi consumer. In some cases, adult woman and under age girls are put together to confuse the issue and make it seem less objectionable. If you have ever seen their video 'Heavy Rotation' you will see exactly what I mean. I don't know how to get away with it - but they do.

The fascination regarding these little girls amongst many Japanese and lolita loving posters here shows one of the things that is wrong with modern society.

Except that fascination with girls of the ages I perceive in the picture stretches from today all the way back to the beginning of recorded history and most likely beyond. AKB48 is hardly built on a new phenomenon.

If modern society truly has a problem, its people trying desperately to deny deep innate socio-sexual reality despite overwhelming evidence.

The vanity! It's like a sweatshop full of young girls, hahaha!

The idol groups have been around for a long time now.. Notice now how since +++48 has taken over, we have not heard much from Hello Project? We are just in a new generation of idol groups and since AKB/SKE/SDN/NMB/etc.48, we have seen a ton of copycat idol groups (Fairies, SUPER☆GIRLS, E-Girls, etc.) and let's not forget the idol invasion from Korea which has introduced something new to idol performances in Japan, skin.. lots of skin.

AKB48 is everywhere. During my trip to Japan in September, seeing several commercials with the girls on there for various products and cross promoting their single "Flying Get". I still have nightmares about the Peach John bra commercial featuring AKB48 and animated hearts that was playing on the video monitors on the Yamanote when I was there. Everytime I hear that song playing on J1, I wait for the hearts to come out of my bra.

I am not too taken aback by AKB48 on New Years cards. It's just another great marketing tie-in. I would rather receive a new years card with AKB48 on them then say.... Hannah Montana.

@The_the_in_the_way:

If modern society truly has a problem, its people trying desperately to deny deep innate socio-sexual reality despite overwhelming evidence.

What is your point - that it is natural for middle aged guys to be attracted to 14~17 year old girls? So we are merely animals incapable of controlling our primal desire to mate with the youngest child bearing female? My biggest problem with what AKB48 does is that they mix minors with adult women and place them in sexualized situations (this New Year's card is harmless and is not in that sort of category). Maybe 100 years ago in an agrarian society it made sense - for reproductive purposes - for girls to be married off at 15 have babies but it doesn't anymore. Societies can evolve and I don't see that as a problem.