HKT48 is an all-female Japanese musical collective. They were formed, and are produced by, Yasushi Akimoto. They are named HKT48 after the area where it was intended they would be based, Hakata-ku in Fukuoka City. The band members are now actually based in neighbouring Chuo-ku instead. The members of the group were decided by auditions and consist of Japanese singers aged between eleven and 22-years-old. As the members get older they graduate from the group and auditions take place to fill their places with new members. The original member list was announced in 2011, although the planning and auditions for the band had been taking place since 2008.
The group perform as separate troupes called Team H, Team KIV and Team TII. All of HKT48's first 12 singles reached number one on the Japanese Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, and most also reached number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Chart. Their debut single release was 'Suki! Suki! Skip!' in 2013, which reached number two on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Chart. This was followed by 'Melon Juice' later in the same year, which was their first number one on the same chart. The band released two singles every year from 2013 until 2017, including 'Sakura, Minnade Tabeta' (2014), 'Shekarashika!' (2015) and 'Bagutte Iijan' (2017). Their debut album, which contained all of these singles, was '092' which was released in 2017 and topped both the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart and the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Albums Chart. Since this album, they have released two further singles: 'Hayaokuri Calendar' in 2018 and 'Ishi' in 2019.
