Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku member Aika Hirota has announced her graduation from the group.

According to the official site, this is being described as “changing schools”, playing off the fact that Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku is described to fans as a school and members as students. However, “changing schools” seems to simply be a light way of saying that Hirota has decided to leave the group.

Aika Hirota mentioned in a blog post that she will leave the group because of all of the things she’s missing as an 18 year old. She’d like to live her teenage years without having any regrets on missing out on her life.

She hasn’t mentioned what she wishes to do once she graduates, but she commented that she wishes to continue performing in some way. Her final performance will be on January 3rd at Nippon Budokan.

Idols live a pretty unique life where they basically spend most of their early life performing for fans on stage. However, most end up missing out on fun memories that their friends get to enjoy which is unfortunate since those are the most memorable years of anyone’s life.

Naturally Hirota has decided to focus on herself and for that we have nothing but respect. We hope that she can enjoy her new freedom and is able to experience everything she can. Best of luck Hirota!

Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku OHP | Shiritsu Ebius Chuugaku LINE Blog