Talk:Kobushi Factory/@comment-91.155.92.72-20150320181800/@comment-4074115-20150320201209

^ Okay, clearing up some misconceptions here because I hear people say this a lot....

Choosing leaders by age OR seniority has been pretty common in Hello! Project. Many people think seniority is more important, but history tells otherwise in the case of Yasuda Kei being sub-leader before Abe Natsumi, or Fujimoto Miki being leader before Takahashi Ai. Mizuki and Haruna were both made sub-leaders to balance both sides, and I think the choice of Mizuki being leader was based on her abilities, not necessarily the fact that she had been in Momusu for a few months longer than Haruna.

Time as Kenshuusei has never been counted as "seniority"; Miyazaki Yuka and Kanazawa Tomoko are Juice=Juice's leader and sub-leader despite the fact that they had been in H!P for shorter time than all the other members. Kudo Haruka has been in H!P for the second longest amount of time of all the members in Momusu after Mizuki, but she's so young no one would think to promote her to sub-leader.

I don't think choosing leader is always as simple as saying "this one is oldest" or "this one has the most experience". There have been several different cases in H!P history, and in one case they actually CHANGED leaders (Melon Kinenbi), so I think it really comes down to "who will be the BEST leader?".

Remember when Niigaki became Momusu's leader, there was no sub-leader because it was debated whether Sayu, the next oldest, had enough skill to properly lead the group instead of Reina, the ace. They clearly took skill into consideration when deciding.

So, to answer the question, though nothing has been said officially, I think Ayaka was probably made leader because she had the right balance of age (maturity) and skill to lead the group. Rio is the oldest, but her skills are lacking, so she was given sub-leader position instead.

That's just my opinion. Sorry for the long comment, but I've been meaning to say my opinion on leadership decisions for a long time. :D