From our other sites
The story
Hello! Project’s Sakura Ishiyama and Ichika Arisawa both joined the Hello! Pro Kenshuusei (trainee) program at age 16 — an unusually old age for a trainee, with most of their fellow trainees still in elementary or middle school at the time. The topic set off a 5ch thread covering trainee tenure rankings and the trainee world’s unique custom where seniority is based on join date, not age. Posters also discussed the recent trend of mid-career trainees joining as late as 22, broadening into a wider conversation about how Hello! Project’s talent-development approach has shifted.
What people said
4,127 days — Akari Uemura
3,361 days — Ruru Danbara (since 2017/06/26)
3,194 days — Tomoko Kanazawa
2,909 days — Sayuki Takagi
2,845 days — Karin Miyamoto
2,643 days — Yua Kudo / Ria Matsunaga (since 2019/06/14)
2,351 days — Reon Inoue (since 2020/04/01)
2,303 days — Yuka Miyazaki
1,889 days — Ichika Arisawa / Risa Irie / Kisaki Ebata (since 2021/07/07)
1,532 days — Sakura Ishiyama / Sakari Endo (since 2022/06/29)
1,447 days — Manaka Inaba
1,207 days — Mifu Kawashima (since 2023/05/23)
623 days — Nanami Yanagawa
442 days — Nia Hayashi (since 2025/06/23)
130 days — Aina Otsuka
Hiromoto — 2nd year high school
Ishiguri, Yonemura, Kubota — 1st year high school
Nakayama, Hashida — 3rd year middle school
Nishizaki, Hirayama, Kitahara, Ebata — 2nd year middle school
Yokaze, Murakoshi, Uemura — 1st year middle school
Hiromoto was the only one their age.
The only one older was Madopi, whose debut was already confirmed.
Whether they can keep doing that going forward will probably decide Hello! Project's future.
so I was surprised this age group might still be growing.
Kasahara and Ota left, and Kitagawa landed a big transfer over to TV Tokyo, so three left and one new member joined.
I remember thinking Juice=Juice was done for.
Yeah, people were calling it the 'trash can.'
Yagi is from this generation too, so that's 4 who've left.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FGorsnNUUAI6p1t.jpg:orig
Wow, Pinopa (nickname) got incredibly cute.
'03 '03 '07
Juice=Juice's Sunflower
'03 '05 '06
Tsubaki Factory's Little Camellia
'03 '03 '04 '07
but honestly those two were probably the only ones their age to begin with.
Hiromoto was around at the same time too, so even as a trio they got along well.
and she already had ties to Miyamoto — that's exactly why she ended up in Hello! Project.
I doubt there are many people who'd get such a convenient second-career shot at joining Hello! Project.
Background and key points of this discussion
A defining feature of Hello! Project’s trainee (kenshuusei) system is that seniority is determined by join date rather than age — a setup sometimes compared to a sumo stable. As a result, most members join while still in middle school, making a join age of 16 the exception commenters pointed it out to be. Some in the thread credited Ishiyama and Arisawa’s arrival with supporting Juice=Juice’s generational turnover, while other exchanges hint there was skepticism about them early on. In recent years, mid-career joins at 22 have also appeared, and the fact that entry into training is no longer strictly tied to age stands out as a shift from the traditional image of a trainee. Note that some posts in the thread mocking certain members’ looks or necessity have been left out of this article.
※This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Sakura Ishiyama: “Ichika Arisawa and I were in the same trainee class — we were both already 16, which is quite old, when we joined as Hello! Pro trainees. Everyone around us was in elementary or middle school…”“.
Leave a Reply