Team

Teams are what are used to separate members of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48 and JKT48 up. By using 'Teams', stage shows can have a low number of members. Teams are named after the letters used in their group's name. Kenkyuusei is sometimes referred to as a Team, but is not officially. Teams also have Team Captains, and Teams usually have a number of around 16 members.

In the case when a Team's name has already been taken up, roman numerals are used to signify which number of letter that team is.

Each Team has their own captain, that can or not be the center of this Team.

Currently, the only situation where Teams weren't used, were in SDN48 and Nogizaka46, where members were separated by using generations instead. Even without Teams these two groups have their own captains, with Noro Kayo being the SDN48 captain and Sakurai Reika the Nogizaka46 captain.

Sometimes, there are special groups made within the AKB48 Group, such as single coupling song groups, like Team PB and Team YJ. Special teams, such as Team Undecided and Team Unknown, are also used for when a member is either transferred or promoted, but there either is no team spot available, or they haven't been allocated to a team yet.

Currently, a special Team, Team Kaigai is being used for AKB48 members who are temporarily transferred to sister groups abroad.

AKB48

• Team A - (Captain Shinoda Mariko)
  • Original Captain - Takahashi Minami
• Team K - (Captain Oshima Yuko)
  • Original Captain - Akimoto Sayaka
• Team B - (Captain Umeda Ayaka)
  • Original Captain - Kashiwagi Yuki
• Original Team 4 Captain - Oba Mina
  • Temporary Captain - Shimada Haruka (Oba Mina was suspended for months because of her scandal)

SKE48

• Team S - (Captain Nakanishi Yuuka)
  • Original Captain - Hirata Rikako
• Team KII - (Captain Takayanagi Akane)
• Team E - (Captain Matsui Rena)
  • Original Captain - Umemoto Madoka

NMB48

• Team N - (Captain Yamamoto Sayaka)
• Team M - (Captain Shimada Rena)
• Team BII - (Captain Kamieda Emika)

HKT48

• Team H - (Captain Anai Chihiro)

JKT48

• Team J - (Captain Devi Kinal Putri)