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The story
On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, users have been debating when the duo nicknamed “Homamei” — which includes Morning Musume 15th-generation member Homare Okamura — will graduate. Specific guesses like “seven years from now” and “she won’t graduate until she’s 26” got thrown around, while others argued the pair should stick around a bit longer because the younger members’ singing just isn’t up to par yet. Opinions were sharply divided.
What people said
Joined Morning Musume on June 22, 2019
Homare Okamura
Yeah, I'd guess about seven years too. We're going to keep seeing more Hello! Project members stick around until 28 or 29 from here on out.
Ishida stuck around until right before turning 28, so that puts it about seven years out.
Can't be helped — Ishida stuck around and got pushed hard by management too.
Angerme: Hanamocchi > Homamei
Tsubaki Factory: Yuumarin > Homamei
BEYOOOOONDS: Manoyuna > Homamei
OCHA NORMA: Yonekubo > Homamei
Rosy Chronicle: Hanayume > Homamei
Way too weak.
'Let alone' nothing — Ebamifu is an S-rank popularity duo.
Five years seems doable. But it really depends on Yamazaki — she's been giving off signs she might quit.
Yamazaki will quit either at the same time as Nonaka or right after her. If Okamura graduates, Yamazaki becomes the oldest member left (the dreaded 'BBA'), and her pride — she's nicknamed 'Era' — won't allow that.
Right, even more so than Fukumura.
They weren't treated coldly at all. Don't forget this is the generation that caused trouble for the whole group — remember the bus tour incident? Even when they do get chances, they never really carry it that far anyway.
They're the generation that's been pushed by management from day one, more than any other in the last ten years.
Eight years in, and pushing aside both the graduating members and the rookies to hog the center spot — that's basically a repeat of the Fukumura era.
Does Panda-san have the resolve to accept the 'old lady' position?
A bumbling-but-charismatic type, like Sato.
As for how Oda rates them: Inoharu > Homamei. What did you make of the song arrangement that made that so blatantly obvious?
Background and Key Points
Morning Musume, the flagship idol group of Tsunku’s Hello! Project stable since 1997, has run through seventeen “generations” of recruits, and the group’s real controversy has never been talent — it’s timing. Members historically “graduated” (idol-speak for a formal, ceremonial departure) around 25, but recent years have seen that norm slip toward 27-28 as veterans like Haruna Ishida stayed on. “Homamei” refers to the duo of Homare Okamura and presumably Meimi (Mei-chan, noted as graduating next spring), both fifteenth-generation members who joined in 2019 and are now seen as the group’s strongest vocalists — a title that in a fandom this obsessed with rankings carries real weight, since it implicitly measures them against younger, weaker-singing generations and against rival H!P units like Angerme and BEYOOOOONDS.
The thread didn’t split on whether Homamei should eventually leave — everyone assumes they will — but on how long “eventually” is. Guesses ranged from a firm four years (pegged to Okamura’s current age of 21) out to seven, with posters anchoring their math to different precedents: some to Ishida’s own late-twenties exit, others to how long it’ll take Gen 16 and 17 to develop comparable vocal ability, and others to a rumored planned exit by fellow senior member Yamazaki.
What’s easy to miss reading this from outside Japan is that “graduation” isn’t a member choosing to quit a job — it’s a semi-scripted lifecycle event tied to age-appropriateness expectations for idols, which is why posters can debate it years in advance like a retirement calendar rather than a personnel guess. The thread also never explains the “bus tour incident” it references as reputational baggage for Gen 15, leaving newer readers without that context.
*This article is compiled and summarized from excerpts of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “When Is Homamei Going to Graduate?“
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