Mayu Watanabe
On October 23, AKB48 represented Japan at the seventh Asia Song Festival, organized by the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, at Seoul Olympic Stadium. Four days later the group released its 18th single, "Beginner". It sold 826,989 copies in its first week, the highest first-week sales for a female idol group single. AKB48 member Mayu Watanabe appeared on the cover of the December issue of the idol magazine "UP to boy" with Airi Suzuki from the Japanese girl group Cute, the first gravure collaboration between Hello! Project and AKB48.