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The story
On September 26, 2026, AKB48 unveiled four new 22nd-generation trainees at a concert held at K Arena Yokohama, and among the names was Momoka Hasegawa (19), who had previously served as Team 8’s Fukushima representative before withdrawing from activities in March 2021. Because her departure back then came abruptly — ending just two days after she’d stepped down as center — 5ch lit up with surprised comments like “I was sure that was a fake story.” Meanwhile, other posters in the thread pointed out several past cases of AKB group members leaving and later returning through a different slot, arguing that this rejoining isn’t without precedent.
coki, 09.26.2026
On September 26, 2026, AKB48 unveiled four new 22nd-generation trainees at a concert at K Arena Yokohama in Kanagawa.
Among them was the name Momoka Hasegawa (19), who had served as Team 8’s Fukushima Prefecture representative since 2019 before withdrawing from activities in March 2021.
Source: coki.jp / Original article here
What people said
Ayaka Kikuchi came back once too
Hitomi Komatani: AKB 1st gen → SDN 3rd gen
Hana Toshima: AKB 1st gen → SDN 3rd gen
Ayaka Kikuchi: AKB 3rd gen → AKB 7th gen
Mika Saeki: AKB 4th gen → "Baito AKB" (part-timer AKB)
Sara Fujimoto: AKB 4th gen → AKB 9th gen
Satomi Muranaka: AKB 4th gen → AKB 8th gen
Shihori Suzuki: AKB 7th gen → AKB 11th gen
Nanami Nishikawa: AKB 8th gen → Nogizaka46 2nd gen
Eriko Jo: NMB 2nd gen → NMB 4.5th gen
Saori Katsumata: "Baito AKB" (missed the following 2nd AKB Draft Conference) → AKB Draft 3rd gen
Momoka Hasegawa: Team 8 Fukushima 3rd gen → AKB 22nd gen
AKB48 Team 8's Momoka Hasegawa Announces End of Activities ★A Two-Day Reign
https://kako.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/akb/1616769859/147
Wasn't 8th gen basically all problem children or something?
Not all of them were problem children, but none of them ever got promoted to full member before quitting
Nah, none of 8th gen took lessons seriously — Togasaki himself said they were all satisfied just getting to use the AKB name
Lmao nothing but problem children
It's just a stopgap until she becomes a TV announcer. If that doesn't pan out, it's Cent Force (talent agency)
Probably being there made her want to be an idol again
Well, there wasn't a dating scandal involved, so maybe that's why she's in the clear
Background and Key Points
AKB48’s Team 8 launched in 2014 as a project built around one representative from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, and as commenters in the thread note, it’s known for having many members end their activities without ever being promoted to regular member status. This article doesn’t reveal the specific reason Hasegawa withdrew from activities in 2021, so the thread’s speculation shouldn’t be taken as established fact. It’s also worth noting that most of the “return after leaving” examples listed in the thread involved moving to a different unit or slot entirely — such as SDN48 or the AKB Draft Conference — which is a different situation from Hasegawa’s case, where she fully ended her activities before coming back as a trainee within the same group.
*This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “AKB48’s Momoka Hasegawa Rejoins After 5 Years — The Full Story from Her Center Withdrawal at 14 to Becoming a Trainee “From Scratch”.”
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