Novel coronavirus affecting JKT48, group to go through major restructuring

As business is affected by the novel coronavirus, JKT48 (Jakarta48) located in Indonesia is taking major challenges.

In Jakarta, regulations have been tightened and JKT48 activities have been severely restricted and theater performances have been suspended.  The situation has not improved even with paid live streaming distributions of theater performances.

So, it was decided to reduce the number of staff as a way to survive.

JKT48 announced on the official website on January 11th that they will be reducing the number of JKT48 members and staff.

Members who will be asked to leave the group will be scheduled to attend a special graduation ceremony in February and 26 people will be announced.  Currently there are 65 members listed on the website, so 40% of the group will be reduced.

According to the website, 7 of 18 members of Team J will be graduating, 5 of 16 for Team KIII will be graduating, 3 of 16 for Team T will be graduating and 11 out of 15 members of Academy Class A (students) will be graduating.

The decision of restructuring JKT48 was met with criticism as people feel that restructuring and graduating are two different things.

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