The return of Ichii Sayaka (Hello! Online)

For those of you who don’t know, Ichii Sayaka is a former member of Morning Musume, having joined as part of 2nd generation with former members Yasuda Kei and Yaguchi Mari. She graduated from Morning Musume soon after the 4th generation was added, in mid-2000. She returned to the music scene for a little while as part of CUBIC CROSS and the release of a solo single, but has been inactive for 5 years after getting married and having a child.

Yesterday, it was announced on Oricon, and translated by Hello! Online, that Sayaka would be making a comeback into show business with plans to become an actress. It looks like she’s been taking acting lessons for the past half-year, so it will be interesting to see what we see from her in the next few months.

In the immediate future, she’s got a few things lined up with articles and appearances scheduled through until September 5th, which are all listed in H!O’s translation. Take particular note of her ameba blog which is live as of now (though there’s only 1 [barely] post so far).

For me, it’s funny that this comeback was announced today, for I was just watching an old Utaban episode – Morning Musume’s first appearance on the show after Sakaya’s graduation. Quirky timing… ^_^