Team

**Teams** (Kanji: チーム, Mandarin: 队) are what are used to separate members of 48 Group. By using 'Teams', members can be categorized more easily. Also, instead of the entire group performing a theater show, only one team is assigned to perform. This allows fans to focus on a certain group of members and give the girls days off. Kenkyuusei are sometimes referred to as Team Kenkyuusei, but is not official. On rare cases, there can be a team with double letter (may be usual for AKB48 Team as Sister Group), for the example for Team SH and Team TP.

AKB48 Team TP implemented a unit system instead teams. GNZ48 also implemented the new Class 4 and Class 8 "teams" while retaining the 3 existing teams.

Teams are named after the letters used in their group's name, except for AKB48 Team 4, Team 8, SNH48 Team X, Team XII and OHI48 Team US. In the case when a Team's name has already been taken up, roman numerals are used to signify which number of letter that team is. For example, both AKB48 and SKE48 have the letter "K" in their names, so instead of forming a Team K in both AKB and SKE, the AKB team is called Team K and the SKE team is called Team KII.

The Teams of SNH48's sister groups didn't follow this order, because they aren't AKB48 sister groups. For example, BEJ48 Team B and AKB48 Team B, but they follow the order of SNH48 actual teams. For example, SNH48 Team NII and GNZ48 Team NIII.

Each Team has their own captain, who may or may not be the Center of the Team. Traditionally, teams had 16 members, but since the Tokyo Dome Team Shuffle, there is no limit to the amount of members that can be on a team.

The only groups that do not use teams are SDN48, Nogizaka46, Keyakizaka46, Sakurazaka46, Hinatazaka46, and Yoshimotozaka46 where members were separated by using generations instead. Even without Teams, these six (counting the Keyakizaka era of Sakurazaka46) groups have their own captains. SDN48 was disbanded in 2012, however. TPE48 didn't form a team, instead they transferred all of the members into AKB48 Team TP.

NMB48, STU48, AKB48 Team SH and CKG48 doesn't have split into teams, simply they promoted as a full group. Due to the various effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, JKT48, MNL48, and BEJ48 disbanded their teams.

A team has its own activity, such as has recording for Single/Album/Setlist Studio Recording for its team, doing a event/concert for its team, doing a setlist by a team, and etc. But, usually they still can interact with another member in another team (Senbatsu, concert, Himawarigumi, and etc). Himawarigumi (AKB48, HKT48, and JKT48) and Cattleyagumi (NMB48) are terms for a group which is formed by some members in a team that usually doing a stage rather than for another activity.

Sometimes, there are special groups made within the AKB48 Group, such as single coupling song groups. An example of this is Team PB or Team YJ. These teams were only temporary and for marketing purposes, the members within them stayed part of their original teams as well. Other temporary teams, such as Team Undecided and Team Unknown, are used when a member is transferred or promoted, but there either is no team spot available, or they haven't been assigned to a team yet. Kenkyuusei, Trainee, or Academy (they are the unders for promoted members) are sometimes referred to as Team Kenkyuusei, but is not official.

Currently, a special Team, Team Kaigai is being used for AKB48 members who have been transferred to sister groups abroad.

A list with the current captains of the teams can be found here.