Japan cm of the week - Atsuko Maeda joins the family

This commercial for Softbank proves that you can never be too confusing in a Japanese commercial, and also that Softbank is hell-bent on casting literally the entirety of Japan in their TV spots.

In addition to ex-AKB48 center Atsuko Maeda (前田敦子), this latest in the extremely long-running "White Family" series also adds the Golden Bombers (ゴールデンボンバー), an air band that's rocketed to fame in a way that makes the Harlem Shake's popularity seem reasonable by comparison.

Watching this commercial also reinforces in my mind what I've always felt about AKB - they owe a lot of their popularity to Atsuko and her being the face of the group for so long. She's cute (and can be sexy at times), she's talented but more than that she's just nice. She strikes me as one of the few people on TV who you'd really enjoy knowing as a person. And IMO it's no surprise that the second she quit the group they stopped being so overwhelmingly present on TV.