Mitsui Aika.

The last single release of the year was "Aruiteru," which was a huge hit. It was the first single that hit the #1 spot in 3 and a half years. Their first mini-album, 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini!, was released in December.

2007 Edit

In February, the first single with eighth generation member Mitsui Aika was released, "Egao YES Nude".

On March 15, Tsunku announced that two other eighth generation members would be joining the group: Li Chun and Qian Lin, both Chinese nationals, were to join as "exchange students." Tsunku stated that the two new members would be an important key for their group's planned expansion into Asia and gave them the stage names of "Junjun" and "Linlin" respectively.

With the success of Yoshizawa Hitomi and Fujimoto Miki's lastsingle "Kanashimi Twilight", on May 1, Morning Musume became the "best single selling female group in Japan" with 11,085,000 copies sold—their fifth Oricon record. The achievement surpasses the previous record set by Pink Lady of 11,037,000 copies sold.

2008 was the first year in which there were no changes in Morning Musume's line-up.

Morning Musume released their 39th single, "Shouganai Yume Oibito", on May 13, attaining the #1 position on Oricon's weekly chart, the first time since their single "Aruiteru" in 2006.

In late September 2009, "Nanchatte Ren'ai" became Morning Musume's highest selling single since "Iroppoi Jirettai", which was released in 2005. With good sales from "Nanchatte Ren'ai", Morning Musume released their 41st single, "Kimagure Princess", on October 28. It was Kusumi Koharu's last single. Her graduation marked the end of