Atsuko Maeda, the idol who is leaving the AKB48 group on Monday, revealed in a press interview before her "graduation" performance that she wants to study abroad in New York. During the interview, she said, "I want to go to various places. Since I've got the time. But I want to go by myself. I've been thinking about trying studying abroad in New York or somewhere else, but I want to take on the challenge entirely on my own."

She also talked about no longer being under AKB48's ban on romance. She said that AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto joked that she can fall in love when the clock strikes midnight on August 28, but she added that she does not know yet what she will do in this regard.

Maeda began her final performance at AKB48's theater in Tokyo's Akihabara district on 6:30 p.m. on Monday. There are 250 people in the audience, but a record 229,096 people requested tickets — 916.38 times more requests than available seats. As a result, the performance is being streamed live on Google+ and YouTube.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web