Morning Musume Otomegumi

The sole purpose of Morning Musume Otome Gumi — as well as its counterpart, Sakura Gumi — was to seperately perform in small towns that couldn't provide large enough venues for the full ensemble of Morning Musume. Aside from their separate tours, the groups also released two singles each with Otome Gumi's representing the modern Japanese woman. The groups both became inactive in the Spring of 2004 when they merged back together to form Morning Musume once more.

The news of Morning Musume's planned split into two seperate halves was announced in 2003 and met with dismay by fans of the group. It hadn't been made clear at first that the group was not to be splitting for good and as a result much confusion arose concerning Morning Musume's future. On September 18, 2003 the group's debut single was released, titled "Ai no Sono ~Touch My Heart!~". The single contained an upbeat title track that was supposed to represent the modern Japanese woman. Their counterpart sang slower paced songs about the traditional Japanese woman and the groups competed for sales with Otome Gumi losing to the more popular image of Sakura Gumi.

This was the final year of Otome Gumi's existance as a seperate group and they soon joined back into Morning Musume. However they released one more single before the merged, once again competing for sales with Sakura Gumi. "Yuujou ~Kokoro no Busu ni wa Naranee!~" was released on February 25, 2004 and once again lost to Sakura Gumi's single once more.