Masuda Yuka Announces Her Resignation From AKB48

AKB48 2nd generation member Masuda Yuka has announced her resignation from the group via her blog. In her blog post she directly mentions this article by Shunkan Bunshun (although not mentioning the magazine by name) which had yet to be released. The article claims that Yuka spent the night at the house of ISSA, from DA PUMP, another Japanese group. The magazine has pictures of her going to his house. She says it is true that she did spend the night there, but that some of the other allegations made in the magazine are false.

ISSA was engaged to actress Fukumoto Sachiko, and his agency have said that the engagement has now been called off. Yuka met ISSA whilst working together on the musical The Wizard Of Oz where she played Dorothy. Due to her actions, Masuda announced she wishes to withdraw from AKB48.

A full translation of Yuka's graduation blog post can be found on emptystring's blog: http://bilingual48.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/masuda-yuka-resigns-from-akb48.html

This graduation doesn't come as much of a surprise to me since Yuka has been withdrawing from important AKB48 activities recently, such as the Janken Tournament and the landmark Tokyo Dome concerts. However, the nature of it did. Especially how she announced her resignation on her blog before the magazine article had even been published. Bunshun's articles have led to much trouble for AKB48 members recently, including the scandal which led to Sashihara Rino being transferred to HKT48. I feel proud of Yuka for admitting to her mistakes and bearing the consequences. She seems to be carving out a career for herself with her recent high profile musical role and I wish her all the best for the future.