First Name: Minami
Family Name: Takahashi
Native name: 高橋 みなみ
Also Known as: Takamina
Nationality: Japanese
Gender: Female
Born: April 8, 1991
Takahashi Minami is a former member of the Japanese idol group AKB48 under Team A. She was also the General Director of the whole AKB48 group including all sister groups. She was described as the "eldest daughter of the 48 sisters" in the group by Yasushi Akimoto during an interview carried out by the Nippon Television network in June 2010. Minami is commonly part of the "Senbatsu" group of singers in the singles released by AKB48. She was also a member of the sub-group no3b, along with AKB48 members Haruna Kojima and Minami Minegishi.
In August 2005, she competed as one of the 15 final candidates in The 30th HoriPro Talent Contest, although she failed to win the Grand-Prix prize. In October, she auditioned and was chosen as one of the 24 founding members of AKB48, out of 7,924 applicants. Two factors that assisted her in passing the audition were her birthday (April 8) and her height (148 cm), both of which include the number "48", according to Tomonobu Togasaki, manager of AKB48 Theater. She debuted on stage on December 8, 2005.
In 2008, she appeared in the TV Tokyo drama Men Dol as Nami/Kai along with the other no3b members: Haruna Kojima and Minami Minegishi.
On August 23, 2009, Minami Takahashi was officially announced as the captain of AKB48's Team A. On August 24, 2012, Mariko Shinoda replaced her as the captain of Team A and Minami Takahashi was made the General Director of the whole AKB48 including all sister groups.
She appears in almost all AKB48 singles as one of the key singers, and also quite frequently represents the group on Music Station and other TV programs and in concerts, press conferences, etc. AKB48's 3-day live concert event scheduled to be held on March 25-27 at Yokohama Arena was subtitled as "Takamina ni tsuite ikimasu" (たかみなについて行きます lit. "We will follow Takamina"), although the concert event was cancelled due to the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
On August 25, 2012, the second day of AKB48 Tokyo Dome Concert, it was announced that Takahashi Minami will be having a Solo debut with the major recording company Universal Music Group, through its Nayutawave Records label. The single was released in 2013.
On December 8, 2014, Takahashi Minami announced her graduation, or departure from AKB48. Team A member Yokayama Yui would take over her role as Team A captain and General Manager of the 48 groups.
Takahashi Minami's graduation event was held at Yokohama Stadium on March 27, 2016 and her final theatre performance was on her 25th birthday, April 8, 2016.
She is now onto a solo career with her first solo album titled "Aishite mo ii desu ka?" which was released on October 12, 2016.
During the graduation concert of fellow original Team A member Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami made an appearance and performed with the group at February 21-22, 2017.
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