#since 1997

𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓮𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓕𝓪𝓷𝓼... 

In 1997, Japanese producer Tsunku started a talent search competition named “ Josei Rokku Vokarisuto Odishon” for a female rock vocalist for his band Sharan Q under the show Asayan.

The winner was Michiyo Heike,

After the competition, Tsunku offered five of the ten runners-up: Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Aya Ishiguro a chance to be taken under his wing on one condition - to sell 50,000 copies of their demo single, "Ai no Tane", within five days of promotion events.

The five accepted the challenge and were named ‘Morning Musume’ and thus, the recording of the song began.

The song was released on November 3, 1997 and they started their distribution at Shinsaibashi, Osaka, selling 16,610 copies on just their  first day. 

And within just 4 days of promotional events and overcoming obstacles, they distributed their 50,000th copy of ‘Ai no Tane’ at Nagoya.

As promised, under Tsunku’s care, in 1998, the 5 member group debuted as Morning Musume with their 1st single “Morning Coffee”.

And from there on, started their journey to become the most famous all-girl group in Japan.