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The story
Speculation spread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board about the financial state of STU48, the idol group based on a floating theater in the Seto Inland Sea. Unlike other 48 Group sister branches, its management company, STU Co., Ltd., is backed by Hakuhodo-affiliated Setouchi DMO, and operates on an independent-accounting basis with no subsidies from the main AKB48 office. The thread noted that the group’s formation coincided with a broader decline in the 48 Group’s momentum, compounded by repeated misfortunes — the 2018 Western Japan floods and the COVID-era suspension of the floating theater among them — that have squeezed its finances. Posters speculated whether the ¥890 million net profit booked in 2022 came from selling the theater ship, and rumors about debt tied to the vessel were also raised and debated.
What people said
STU was originally run by a different company than the main office.
Hakuhodo's the one backing them.
Factor in expenses running double that, and you're looking at close to ¥10 million a month.
Might be better to just cut their losses and write STU off as a failure.
The whole 48 franchise is already in the red and past saving…
This is probably just normal operations for them.
Let's make the next one, the Neo STU48, a submarine.
Rumor has it there's debt on the ship.
Formed right as the 48 Group was declining and the Sakamichi groups were on the rise.
1st single release delayed.
The floating theater's opening delayed too.
2nd single delayed because of the Western Japan floods.
When the floating theater finally opened, all anyone talked about was the striptease-like staging and the rip-off bottled water.
Promising members like Ichioka Ayumi (now in ≒JOY) kept leaving one after another.
Then, about a year after the floating theater opened, COVID hit.
The floating theater shut down because of COVID.
Since then it's just a handful of shows a month at a Hiroshima livehouse.
Most of the work is SHOWROOM livestreaming.
Okay, that's genuinely pitiable. Brutal.
That's hell. Members stuck with nothing but SHOWROOM streams can't keep their motivation up.
So many cute members and they're not putting them to use. Such a waste.
A few years back all the 48 Group branches switched to independent accounting, so the main office no longer has to support them.
Because of that, branch members stopped joining AKB's singles, and joint events dropped off too.
SKE sold over 500,000 copies of a single and still didn't get to perform it on a nationally broadcast show.
Isn't STU outside AKB's consolidated accounts?
If so, with liabilities exceeding assets, bankruptcy might just be a matter of time.
They were losing the battle to hype up a crowd live to begin with.
Akimoto-penned songs aren't really built for live performance in the first place.
Not great for just listening to either, honestly.
The song choices were clearly not suited for live vocals.
This exactly.
STU's songs just have this gloomy vibe to them.
A different kind of dark from Keyakizaka or Sakurazaka — more like old Showa-era enka-pop.
Did they sell off some assets or something?
Well, if they're still not in the black by 2026, might as well pull out now while the wound's still shallow.
AKB as a whole is turning a profit, right?
Supposedly they sold the ship.
A member named Kudo Riko also joined an agency in the same bar-affiliated group as Miyane, but she hasn't been seen since.
SKE: Zest (Keyholder)
NMB: Yoshimoto
HKT: Mercury (Sprout)
NGT: Flora (Sprout)
STU: STU Co., Ltd. (shareholder is Setouchi DMO, backed by Hakuhodo)
Oh, NGT's still around?
Huh, so it's not all run by Dentsu after all?
In its early days SKE was partly funded by the pachinko company Kyoraku (run by Ito Misaki's husband).
Back then they were getting about as much music-show airtime as Juice=Juice at their peak.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
STU48 is a 48 Group idol unit formed in 2015, based around a floating theater on the Seto Inland Sea. Unlike its sister branches, its management company is STU Co., Ltd., part of the Setouchi DMO group backed by Hakuhodo. Its formation coincided with a broader decline in momentum across the 48 Group and Sakamichi Series, and the group faced a string of setbacks from external factors — delayed single releases, the Western Japan floods, and the suspension of the floating theater due to COVID roughly a year after it opened. Several years ago, all 48 Group branches moved to independent accounting, so there is generally no subsidy from the main AKB48 office. Thread posters cited a net profit of ¥890 million in 2022, but speculated it came from the sale of the theater ship rather than core business earnings, meaning it likely doesn’t reflect the group’s actual operating performance. Some posts floated the idea of “bankruptcy from insolvency,” but none of this is confirmed by public disclosures — it remains user speculation and should be read with that caveat.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “STU48’s debt trouble is causing a stir.”
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