Morning Musume Members



This page consists of all current and former members of the J-pop group Morning Musume.

The group is known for their ever-fluctuating line-up, with "graduations" and auditions held nearly every year. As of June 2017, there have been a total of 41 members altogether (1997 - present), 25 graduated members, 2 members which have resigned and 14 generations. There are currently 13 members in Morning Musume '18 which consists of the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th generations.

Leadership

 * Leaders


 * Sub-Leaders


 * The sub-leader position was established on April 16, 2001, when Iida Kaori became the second leader.
 * The sub-leader position was vacant from October 1, 2011 to May 21, 2013, until Tanaka Reina graduated and assigned Fukumura Mizuki and Iikubo Haruna as the new sub-leaders.

Members Colors
Each Morning Musume member has her own color for outfits and merchandise to distinguish between each member. Over time, as each member leaves the group, current or new members have the opportunity to change their current color to a different one which is available. No member has the exact same color, but some might have colors that look fairly similar to another member's.

Heritage Members Colors
Official member colors were introduced in spring of 2005.

Tenures
Notable tenures= Members of Morning Musume rarely stay in the group for more than six years, and to date only fifteen members have done this.

All names in BOLD are current members.
 * -|All Member Tenures=
 * 1) Michishige Sayumi: 11 Years, 10 Months, 7 Days
 * 2) Niigaki Risa: 10 Years, 8 Months, 23 Days
 * 3) Tanaka Reina: 10 Years, 4 Months, 2 Days
 * 4) Takahashi Ai: 10 Years, 1 Month, 5 Days
 * 5) Kamei Eri: 7 Years, 10 Months, 27 Days
 * 6) Iida Kaori: 7 Years, 4 Months, 24 Days
 * 7) Yoshizawa Hitomi: 7 Years, 21 Days
 * 8) Fukumura Mizuki and Ikuta Erina: 
 * 9) Yaguchi Mari: 6 Years, 11 Months, 12 Days
 * 10) Abe Natsumi: 6 Years, 4 Months, 18 Days
 * 11) Iikubo Haruna, Ishida Ayumi and Sato Masaki: 
 * 12) Kudo Haruka: 6 Years, 2 Months, 12 Days
 * 13) Mitsui Aika: 5 Years, 5 Months, 8 Days
 * 14) Suzuki Kanon: 5 Years, 4 Months, 29 Days
 * 15) Oda Sakura: 
 * 16) Ishikawa Rika: 5 Years, 21 Days
 * 17) Yasuda Kei: 5 Years, 2 Days
 * 18) Ogawa Makoto: 5 Years, 1 Day
 * 19) Sayashi Riho: 4 Years, 11 Months, 29 Days
 * 20) Konno Asami: 4 Years, 10 Months, 27 Days
 * 21) Kusumi Koharu: 4 Years, 7 Months, 5 Days
 * 22) Fujimoto Miki: 4 Years, 4 Months, 13 Days
 * 23) Tsuji Nozomi, Kago Ai: 4 Years, 3 Months, 16 Days
 * 24) JunJun and LinLin: 3 Years, 9 Months
 * 25) Nakazawa Yuko: 3 Years, 7 Months, 8 Days
 * 26) Ogata Haruna, Nonaka Miki, Makino Maria and Haga Akane: 
 * 27) Goto Maki: 3 Years, 1 Month, 1 Day
 * 28) Ishiguro Aya: 2 Years, 4 Months
 * 29) Ichii Sayaka: 2 Years, 18 Days
 * 30) Fukuda Asuka: 1 Year, 7 Months, 11 Days
 * 31) Kaga Kaede and Yokoyama Reina: 
 * 32) Morito Chisaki: 

Mentors
Beginning with third generation, when a new member joins Morning Musume, a senior member is sometimes assigned to be their mentor. The mentor system was dropped after the seventh generation, but was officially brought back for the twelfth generation.

Official mentors=
 * Third Generation
 * Ichii Sayaka → Goto Maki
 * Fourth Generation
 * Yasuda Kei → Ishikawa Rika (Team Vocals)
 * Yaguchi Mari → Yoshizawa Hitomi (Team Expressive Power)
 * Iida Kaori → Tsuji Nozomi (Team Rhythm)
 * Goto Maki → Kago Ai (Team Greeting and Manners)
 * Seventh Generation
 * Michishige Sayumi → Kusumi Koharu
 * Twelfth Generation
 * Iikubo Haruna → Mentor to all twelfth generation members
 * Thirteenth Generation
 * Kudo Haruka → Mentor to all thirteenth generation members


 * -|Unofficial mentors=
 * Fifth Generation
 * Yoshizawa Hitomi → Takahashi Ai
 * Abe Natsumi → Konno Asami
 * Ishikawa Rika → Ogawa Makoto
 * Yaguchi Mari → Niigaki Risa
 * Sixth Generation
 * Yasuda Kei → Mentor to all sixth generation members
 * Eighth Generation
 * Kusumi Koharu → Mitsui Aika
 * Kamei Eri & Tanaka Reina → Junjun
 * Ninth Generation
 * Mitsui Aika → Mentor to all ninth generation members
 * Tenth Generation
 * Mitsui Aika → Mentor to all tenth generation members
 * Twelfth Generation
 * Sato Masaki (Rhythm coach), Ishida Ayumi & Kudo Haruka (Performance Coaches) , Oda Sakura (Posing coach) → Mentor to all twelfth generation members

Trivia

 * Sayashi Riho and Suzuki Kanon are the first members to have been born after the group's formation in 1997 (both were born in 1998).
 * Sato Masaki and Kudo Haruka are the first members to join the group that were born after Hello! Project's formation.
 * Makino Maria and Haga Akane are the first members to join the group that were born in the 21st century.
 * Iikubo Haruna and Ishida Ayumi were the last members to join who were be born before the group's formation in September 1997.
 * The 11th generation is the first generation to have the members in that generation to all be born after the group's formation.
 * Kudo Haruka is the youngest person to ever join Morning Musume at the age of 11 years and 11 months, and auditioning at age 11. She beat Kago Ai's 11-year record which was set at the age of 12.
 * 2008 was the only year in which there were no line-up changes. For a combined period of over two years, there were no graduations or new members, until Kusumi Koharu graduated in December 2009.
 * Niigaki Risa is the only leader to have once been the youngest member of Morning Musume.
 * As of September 2011, Takahashi Ai is the longest serving leader at 4 years, 3 months, and 28 days.
 * Morning Musume received eight new members in 2011 (the 9th generation and 10th generation with 4 members each), making it the only year when two generations were added.
 * Fukumura Mizuki holds the record for being the youngest sub-leader and youngest leader the group has ever had. She is also the fastest member to become leader, excluding Nakazawa Yuko who became leader when the group was formed.
 * Every generation since the 8th generation has had at least one former Hello Pro Kenshuusei.
 * The 14th generation was the first generation to not include a member of Hello Pro Kenshuusei since the 7th generation joined in 2005.
 * 1st generation member Fukuda Asuka is the only former member that had never participated in any type of unit or sub-group during her time in Hello! Project.
 * 8th generation members Junjun and Linlin are the only members to graduate before a new generation has joined the group.
 * The most common age for members to join are at 12 and 13 years of age, with each having 9 members of those ages joining the group.
 * The most common age for members to graduate or leave is at 22 years of age, with 6 members graduating at that age.
 * Nakazawa Yuko, Yoshizawa Hitomi, and Fukumura Mizuki are the only leaders whose order match their generation (Nakazawa as the first leader, Yoshizawa as the fourth leader, and Fukumura as the ninth leader).
 * The 3rd, 7th, and 8th generations are the only generations to have no member be a leader or sub-leader of the group before they all graduated.
 * To date, the 6th and 8th generations are the only generations to have members to joining on two separate dates; the 6th generation with a 13 days difference, and the 8th generation with a 3 months difference (from December 2006 to March 2007).
 * As of September 2016 the 10th generation became the longest lasting full generation, and continued on as a full generation through December 2017 for a total of 6 Years, 2 Months, 12 Days.
 * As of September 2017, the 10th generation is the first generation in which all the members have reached 6 years in the group.
 * 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2015 are the only years in which no new members were added.
 * Iikubo Haruna is the only current sub-leader to have gone through two different leadership reigns with Michishige Sayumi and Fukumura Mizuki.
 * Every member of Morning Musume before the 13th and 14th generations have been in at least one single that ranked #1 on the Oricon weekly charts.
 * Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei and Yaguchi Mari are the only members to have participated in 9 singles that ranked #1 on the Oricon weekly charts.
 * Ishiguro Aya, Yasuda Kei, Ichii Sayaka, Tanaka Reina and Sayashi Riho are the only members to have their graduating single rank #1 on the Oricon weekly charts.
 * The 7th, 12th, and 13th generations are the only generations to hold more than one audition.
 * The 3rd, 4th and 14th generations are the only ones to have their debut single also be a graduation single.
 * The 12th and 14th generations are currently the only generations in the group to have debuted with a triple A-side single and also the only generations which their debut singles did not have a B-side.
 * The year 1999 has the most member births out of any year with 6 members being born that year, in order it is: Ogata Haruna (February 15), Oda Sakura (March 12), Sato Masaki (May 7), Nonaka Miki (October 7), Kudo Haruka (October 27), and Kaga Kaede (November 30).
 * Coincidentally they all are blood type A.
 * The 11th and 13th generations are the only generations to be entirely composed of Hello Pro Kenshuusei.
 * As of January 2017, the 3rd, 7th, and 8th generations (not counting active generations) are the only ones in which none of the members were in the group for more than 6 years.
 * As of April 2017, Oda Sakura is the longest lasting one-member generation at . The previous record belonged to 7th generation member Kusumi Koharu who was in the group for 4 years, 7 months, and 5 days.
 * The 9th, 11th, 13th and 14th generation are the only generations which match the member count on debut (9 members with 9th generation, 11 with 11th, 13 with 13th, and 14 with the 14th).
 * 6th generation member Fujimoto Miki and 14th generation member Morito Chisaki are the only two members who have had other activities within Hello! Project (as a soloist and Country Girls member, respectively) before joining Morning Musume.
 * The 14th generation is the only generation in which there was no audition to join the group.
 * The 14th generation marks the first time in the history of the group to have 6 generations in the group at the same time (9th to 14th).
 * As of June 2017, the most member births in one month is February with 6 member births, the members that are both in February are in order: Makino Maria (February 2), Kago Ai (February 7), Ogata Haruna (February 15), Morito Chisaki (February 19), Yokoyama Reina (February 22), and Fujimoto Miki (February 26).
 * As of September 2017, Iikubo Haruna is the longest-serving sub-leader at . She beat Niigaki Risa's previous record of 4 years, 3 months, and 28 days.
 * As of September 2017, 15 of the 41 past and present members have been in the group for 6 years, making 1/3 of the group meet this milestone.
 * From September 29, 2017 to December 11, 2017, the group had a total of 6 members in the group that have been in the group for over 6 years. This made it the first ever line-up to ever have that many members in the group that have been there for 6 years.
 * The previous record was in the January 2009 to December 2010 line-up, which had Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi, and Tanaka Reina be in the group for 6+ years at that point.

External Link

 * Wikipedia: English