Sakura Miyawaki

Sakura Miyawaki (宮脇 咲良; born March 19, 1998), better known mononymously as Sakura, is a Japanese singer and actress based in South Korea. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Le Sserafim, and is a former member of South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One, Japanese girl group AKB48, and HKT48.

Miyawaki began her music career with the girl group HKT48 in 2011 and was a concurrent member of their sister group AKB48 from 2014 to 2018. During her tenure, she held center positions for the singles "Kimi wa Melody" and "No Way Man". Miyawaki took a hiatus from HKT48 in 2018 after placing second in the reality competition show Produce 48, joining the girl group Iz*One until 2021, then leaving HKT48 a few months later to pursue her idol career in South Korea by joining Le Sserafim, which debuted in May 2022.

2011–2017: Career beginnings
Miyawaki joined HKT48 as a first-generation trainee in July 2011. She made her first official appearance as an HKT48 member on October 23 at a national handshake event for the song "Flying Get". She made her theater debut on November 26 with a revival of SKE48 Team S stage "Te wo Tsunaginagara".

Miyawaki was officially promoted to full member status of HKT48 Team H on March 4, 2012, along with 15 other trainees.

In 2012, Miyawaki became the first HKT48 member to have ranked in the AKB48 general election. She received 6,635 votes, placing her at the 47th position. Later that year, she landed her first A-side participation on AKB48's 28th single "Uza". Although she did not make the A-side for the 29th and 30th singles, she appeared on the A-side for the 31st single, "Sayonara Crawl", released on May 22, 2013, and placed 26th overall in AKB48's 2013 general election with 25,760 votes.

Miyawaki's first A-side participation with HKT48 was on its first single "Suki! Suki! Skip!" (Like! Like! Skip!) and Melon Juice.

On January 11, 2014, it was announced during the first day of HKT48's Kyushu 7 Prefecture Tour at Oita, that Miyawaki would be transferred to the newly formed Team KIV. Later, at AKB48's Group Grand Reformation Festival, she was promoted to vice captain of Team KIV and given a concurrent position in AKB48 Team A.

Miyawaki participated in the 2014 AKB48 general election and placed 11th overall with 45,538 votes, landing her a position on the A-side for "Kokoro no Placard". In that year's rock-paper-scissors tournament, Miyawaki lost in the 3rd round of the preliminary competition. However, management decided she would share the lead position with winner Mayu Watanabe for AKB48's 38th single, "Kiboteki Refrain", and became the first local HKT48 member to have lead position on an A-side single.

In 2015, Miyawaki was given a lead role in AKB48's drama Majisuka Gakuen 4 along with Haruka Shimazaki. The season premiered on January 19. She placed 7th overall in the general election the same year with 81,422 votes.

In July 2015, she released her first photobook, titled Sakura, which reached number 1 on the weekly Oricon photobook chart and number 3 on the general book chart.

She got her first solo lead position on AKB's 43rd single with "Kimi wa Melody", released on March 9, 2016.

2018–2021: Produce 48, Iz*One, graduation from HKT48
In 2018, Miyawaki participated and placed second in reality girl group survival show Produce 48, and became a member of Korean-Japanese idol group Iz*One that debuted in October of the same year. She and the other two Japanese members of the group took a hiatus from their respective Japanese groups until their contracts with Iz*One expired in April 2021. She also launched her own video gaming channel on YouTube. As of August 6, 2021, Miyawaki had over 692,000 subscribers and had garnered 22 million video views.

After Iz*One's disbandment in April 2021, a preview of her interview with the July issue of Vivi leaked that she was leaving HKT48. On May 15, 2021, Miyawaki confirmed her departure, with a graduation concert scheduled to be held on June 19. A short version for the music video of her graduation song, "Omoide ni Suru ni wa Mada Hayasugiru" (思い出にするにはまだ早すぎる), was uploaded to YouTube on June 14, while the official audio was released on June 20. Her final performance with HKT48 was on June 27. In May 2021, Miyawaki became the face of the hair care brand Kérastase and the Chinese cosmetics brand Flower Knows. On November 1, 2021, Vernalossom announced that Miyawaki's contract with them had concluded.

2022–present: Debut with Le Sserafim
On March 14, 2022, Miyawaki, alongside former Iz*One member Kim Chae-won and former Produce 48 contestant Huh Yun-jin, signed exclusive contracts with Source Music, and were confirmed to debut as members of Le Sserafim in May. On March 21, 2022, she joined Japanese talent agency A.M. Entertainment for individual activities in Japan. On May 2, 2022, Le Sserafim made their debut with the extended play, Fearless.

AKB48 General Election placements
Miyawaki's placements in AKB48's annual general elections:

Endorsements
Miyawaki has been the main model of the Japanese colour contact lens company Molak since 2019. In 2021, she was appointed the Asian brand ambassador of the makeup brand Flower Knows and the muse of Kérastase's Japanese branch, acting as the face of its "Blond Absolu" line.

In 2022, Miyawaki was selected as Japanese clothing brand Lily Brown's main model, collaborating with its clothing lines and seasonal collections.

In 2023, South Korean skin care brand Primera appointed Miyawaki as its global ambassador.

Business
Miyawaki launched her cosmetic brand Cran by Molak in 2021, as a partnership with the brand Molak, which she modeled for. The brand ceased operations on November 30, 2022.

Composition credits
All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted.