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 14 members in Morning Musume '17 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 eleven members have done this.

Note: 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, 2 Days
 * 3) Tanaka Reina: 10 Years, 4 Months, 2 Days
 * 4) Takahashi Ai: 10 Years, 1 Month, 5 Days
 * 5) Kamei Eri: 7 Years, 11 Months, 26 Days
 * 6) Iida Kaori: 7 Years, 4 Months, 24 Days
 * 7) Yoshizawa Hitomi: 7 Years, 21 Days
 * 8) Yaguchi Mari: 6 Years, 11 Months, 12 Days
 * 9) Fukumura Mizuki and Ikuta Erina: 
 * 10) Abe Natsumi: 6 Years, 4 Months, 18 Days
 * 11) Iikubo Haruna, Ishida Ayumi, Sato Masaki and Kudo Haruka: 
 * 12) Mitsui Aika: 5 Years, 5 Months, 8 Days
 * 13) Suzuki Kanon: 5 Years, 4 Months, 29 Days
 * 14) Ishikawa Rika: 5 Years, 21 Days
 * 15) Yasuda Kei: 5 Years, 2 Days
 * 16) Ogawa Makoto: 5 Years, 1 Day
 * 17) Sayashi Riho: 4 Years, 11 Months, 29 Days
 * 18) Konno Asami: 4 Years, 10 Months, 27 Days
 * 19) Oda Sakura: 
 * 20) Kusumi Koharu: 4 Years, 7 Months, 5 Days
 * 21) Fujimoto Miki: 4 Years, 4 Months, 13 Days
 * 22) Tsuji Nozomi, Kago Ai: 4 Years, 3 Months, 16 Days
 * 23) JunJun and LinLin: 3 Years, 9 Months
 * 24) Nakazawa Yuko: 3 Years, 7 Months, 8 Days
 * 25) Goto Maki: 3 Years, 1 Month, 1 Day
 * 26) Ogata Haruna, Nonaka Miki, Makino Maria and Haga Akane: 
 * 27) Ishiguro Aya: 2 Years, 4 Months
 * 28) Ichii Sayaka: 2 Years, 18 Days
 * 29) Fukuda Asuka: 1 Year, 7 Months, 11 Days
 * 30) Kaga Kaede and Yokoyama Reina: 
 * 31) 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 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.
 * Takahashi Ai and Niigaki Risa are the longest serving leader and sub-leader (4 years).
 * 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 leader along with being the youngest sub-leader the group has ever had.
 * Fukumura Mizuki is also the fastest member to become the groups "Leader", excluding Nakazawa Yuko.
 * Every generation since the 8th generation has had at least one former Hello Pro Kenshuusei.
 * The 14th Generation is the first generation to have not included a member of Hello Pro Kenshuusei since the 7th generation in 2005.
 * 1st generation member Fukuda Asuka is the only former member that had never participated in any type of unit or subgroup 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 to 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.
 * 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).
 * The 10th generation is the longest-lasting complete generation, as all of its members have stayed in the group for more than .
 * The 9th generation used to be the longest-lasting complete generation at 4 years, 11 months, and 29 days.
 * 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 had at least one single (when they where on the group or are currently in the group) that reached the #1 spot 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 reached #1 on the Oricon charts.
 * Ishiguro Aya, Yasuda Kei, Ichii Sayaka, Tanaka Reina and Sayashi Riho are the only members to have their graduating single reach #1 on the Oricon charts.
 * The 7th, 12th, and 13th generations are the only generations to hold more than one audition.
 * 3rd and 4th generations are the only ones to have their debut single also be a graduation single.
 * The 12th generation is currently the only generation in the group to have debuted with a triple A-side single, and also the only generation where their debut single didn't 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-person generation at . The previous record belonged to previous sole-generation Kusumi Koharu who was in the group for 4 years, 7 months, and 5 days.
 * The 9th, 11th, 13th and 14th 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, Morito Chisaki are the only two members who has had other activities within Hello! Project (Soloist and Country Girls member) before being a member of Morning Musume.
 * The 14th Generation is the only generation in which they did not have an audition for the group.

External Link

 * Wikipedia: English