AKB365

Actually, it was the group itself, or 16 of its members, who made the announcement on June 2 after performing three songs in the park. Moreover, the performances will be staged two or three times a day until Sept. 9 for a total of 112 appearances.

That sounds like a lot, even for a 48-member group that tends to perform in 16-member shifts, but AKB will be joined by sister groups NMB48 (from Osaka’s Namba district), HKT48 (from Fukuoka’s Hakata district) and NGT48 (from the city of Niigata). All the concerts will take place at USJ’s Stage 14 venue, with an additional eight concerts in the park’s Gramercy Park area.

In addition, AKB48 songs will be played over loudspeakers on the Hollywood Dream roller coaster during the same period of time. It should be noted that the concerts are not free to anyone who enters the park.

Those who want to attend will have to pay a surcharge of 2,500 yen ($23) to do so in advance or 3,000 on the day. According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the pairing celebrates both USJ’s 15th anniversary and AKB48’s 10th anniversary.