The 12 finalists for the “Unusual Audition,” a men’s unit project supervised by Yasushi Akimoto, have been selected!

Avex, Japan Music Entertainment, and Y&N brothers announced the 12 finalists for the joint male group audition “Don’t give up on your dreams! Audition” announced the 12 finalists on July 25. A press conference was held in Tokyo before the final screening.

The “Don’t give up on your dreams! Audition” was an unusual audition, seeking applicants over 25 years old, supervised by Yasushi Akimoto, general producer of AKB48 and Sakamichi Group, and promising a terrestrial TV appearance upon debut.

The 12 finalists selected were Shinjiro Terada (39), Tsuyoshi Mukaiyama (35), Jun Aoyama (35), Keishi Yamamoto (35), Yuta Izutsu (32), Masaki Shiota (31), Makoto Watanabe (37), Yuki Yanagida (37), Takuya Matsuoka (33), Wataru Suzuki (31), Kenji Hashizume (30) and Tsubasa Onodera (28).

The finalists are men from various careers, including actors, former J-League players, cookery researchers, and TV station employees.

The final judging will take the form of a competition between the “SHOW-WA” team of Terada, Mukaiyama, Aoyama, Yamamoto, Izutsu, and Shiota, and the “MATSURI” team of Watanabe, Yanagida, Matsuoka, Suzuki, Hashizume, and Onodera, who are scheduled to make their debut on New Year’s Day, ’24. The team is scheduled to debut on New Year’s Day, 2012.

Terada is a cookery researcher and has appeared on TV before,

I have been active as a cookery researcher for 15 years, but I couldn’t give up on my dreams (singing and dancing) that I had when I was a teenager, so I decided to participate in this project!　I will be 40 years old this August. I am the oldest. I would like to embody that “You can make your dreams come true at any age! I want to embody that. I will do my best to become a group that many people love!　Thank you for your support!

I hope you will support us,” he said enthusiastically.

We can’t take our eyes off these 12 passionate men and what they have in store for us.