Morning Musume's Haruka Kudo To Graduate From Group

Morning Musume member Haruka Kudo will be graduating from the group to pursue a career in acting.

The graduation announcement came over the weekend while the group was performing in Kyoto.

"If you challenge yourself to acting, you can't do it halfhearted. You do it all out. An idol's main job is standing on stage singing and dancing, so I thought it would be unfair to both the members and the fans if I was wanting to be acting on stage instead. After thinking a lot about it, I decided to graduate," Kudo said.

A date for Kudo's graduation has not been set at this time. However, she will be staying with the group during its current tour. The group's final performance will be on June 23 at Nippon Budokan.

Kudo joined Hello! Project in March 2010, and later became a member of Morning Musume as a 10th generation member in September 2011.