Sotsugyō

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"Sotsugyō" (卒業, "Sotsugyō"^?) is the Japanese word for graduation.

[edit] Hello! Project relevance

In the Hello! Project pop music clique based around female supergroup Morning Musume, a sotsugyō is a members' final performance either with Morning Musume or one of its many subgroups or associated acts—in which case they are either beginning a solo career or new group within Hello! Project—or, rarely, from the Hello! Project umbrella entirely. These departures usually appear to be voluntary and amicable.

To date, the only sotsugyō from Hello! Project entirely have been original Morning Musume members Asuka Fukuda, and Aya Ishiguro, second generation Morning Musume member Sayaka Ichii, third generation Morning Musume member Maki Goto, fifth generation Morning Musume member Asami Konno, solo artists Michiyo Heike (reportedly the only unamicable split from the Hello! Project family), Chinatsu Miyoshi, Rika Ishii and Shimmin (Hello! Project's Korean exchange student), original Country Musume member Rinne Toda, Coconuts Musume/Mini Moni member Mika Todd, original Berryz Kobo member Maiha Ishimura, original °C-ute member Murakami Megumi, Hello! Project Eggs Maho Ōyanagi, Miyuki Kawashima, and Mirei Hashida, and later Country Musume members Asami Kimura and Miuna Saito.

At the graduation of Kimura and Saito in January of 2007, Asami Konno made a surprise appearance onstage to wish her former fellow Country Musume members well. To date, Konno is the only former Hello! Project member to make an appearance onstage after her own sotsugyō, and as of June 2007 is also the only member to return to Hello! Project (currently part-time in-between college commitments, in Konno's case) after having a sotsugyō, suggesting that "graduations" from Hello! Project are not always meant to be permanent.

Also to date, two whole groups have graduated together and departed the Hello! Project as a whole. Taiyou to Ciscomoon, consisting of Miho Shinoda, Miwa Kominato, RuRu, and Atsuko Inaba disbanded and graduated in November of 2000 (although Inaba lated returned later in 2000 to Hello! Project to work behind the scenes and later become a solo artist). Sheki-Dol also graduated as a whole in 2002. At the time of disbandment, the group contained of Ami Kitagami, Mami Suenaga, and Saki Arai.

Mari Yaguchi and Miki Fujimoto are the only members of Morning Musume to have not undergone a graduation ceremony from the band before starting or resuming a solo career, given the sudden nature of their departures from the group after Yaguchi being photographed with her then-boyfriend Shun Oguri by paparazzi in 2005, and Fujimoto being photographed with boyfriend Tomoharu Shōji by similar paparazzi in 2007.

Ironically, Yaguchi did have a sotsugyō ceremony three years earlier when she departed Mini Moni, the subgroup she co-founded, in 2002.

Ai Kago, although having a sotsugyō ceremony from Morning Musume, did not have a ceremony for leaving Hello! Project, since her repeated scandals resulted in her contract being dissolved and later fired from the agency.

Conversely, Melon Kinenbi is the only Hello! Project group to not undergo a sotsugyō or other personnel change in its entire existence.

[edit] Other uses

• "Sotsugyō" is also a 2004 single by J-pop quartet ZONE. It appears on their third studio album N.
• "Sotsugyō" (a.k.a. The Graduation) is also a movie directed by Masahiko Nagasawa, released in 2002.