Sayaka Akimoto
Background. Early career. Akimoto was born to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother. In 2012, she ran the Tokyo Marathon for the second year in a row and donated the money to the Philippines. Her solo book of photographs is entitled "Ari no Mama". On June 26, 2014, Akimoto was appointed as the Goodwill Philippine Tourism Ambassador in order to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination in Japan. She was also assigned as a narrator in the collaboration drama of PTV-4 and Nippon TV entitled "Halo Halo House-Jose's Nippon Diary" 2006-2013: AKB48 member . Akimoto began her career in AKB48 as one of the members of the second generation, the Original Team K. On the last day of the Budokan concert on August 23, 2009, during the first team shuffle, Akimoto was officially made captain of Team K. She resigned after a scandal in 2010 but after completing the Tokyo Marathon in 2011, she was reappointed the position. On August 24, 2012, in the Tokyo Dome~1830m no Yume~ concert, Yuko Oshima replaced her as the captain of Team K via team shuffle. She has since been involved with sub-unit group Diva under  Avex. She became a regular on the popular noon TV show "Waratte Iitomo" from 2010 to 2012"." She was also featured as one of the members in AKB48's own anime television show alongside other members Minami Takahashi, Yuko Oshima, Tomomi Itano, Atsuko Maeda and others. On April 7, 2013, Akimoto announced on her official blog that she would not be participating in AKB48's 2013 general election, and would be graduating from AKB48 to focus on her acting. Her graduation ceremony was held on August 22 at the Tokyo Dome, and her final stage performance was held on August  28 at the AKB48 Theater, and has been streamed live by Nico Nico Namahousou. Career. 2014-present: Solo career. In 2014, she reunited with her sub-unit group DIVA to release their final single "Discovery", an album, and a tour before disbandment. She composed and sang "Little Witch" which was the NHK 2014 Spring Campaign Theme Song. Since leaving AKB48 she has starred in four movies. She has a recurring role as Bikuu in "Garo" which led to a solo movie spin off in 2015. She sang the theme song of the movie entitled "Sengetsu ~Hikari to Yami no Soba  de~". Akimoto was a co-host for Team Japan in the reality competition show "Ultimate Beastmaster" which was released on Netflix on February 24, 2017.