Editing Morning Musume (section)

===2005: 7th Generation "Miracle" Member, Mari Yaguchi's dismissal and Kaori Iida's and Rika Ishikawa's graduation===
On January 30, 2005, then-leader and the last member from the first generation Kaori Iida left to pursue a solo singer/artist career, with Mari Yaguchi taking on leadership role with Hitomi Yoshizawa as subleader. Her last single was "[[The Manpower!!!]]",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_27/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518044856/http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_27/index.html|url-status=dead|title=Up-Front Works Discography – The Manpower!!!|archive-date=May 18, 2007}}</ref> which sung about the abilities of the human race and was also the [[Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles]] theme song. The beginning of 2005 also saw the beginning of [[Musume Document 2005]], which covered behind-the-scenes material, historical footage, and interviews.

In February 2005, Tsunku started another audition for Morning Musume's seventh generation. He noted that he was still intent on finding an "ace". This audition resulted with [[Koharu Kusumi]] finally being chosen as the sole "miracle" member of the new generation.

On April 10, 2005, photos were taken of [[Mari Yaguchi]] with [[Shun Oguri]] (scheduled to be published in a gossip magazine ''Friday!'' on the 15th). On April 14, 2005, Yaguchi announced that she would "retire" from Morning Musume and would continue on with solo activities. In her public statement, Yaguchi said that due to the scandal and its publicity, she could no longer sustain an "idol" image befitting of Morning Musume. Because of the nature of her departure, Yaguchi did not receive a leaving concert. Sub-leader Hitomi Yoshizawa took over as the leader of Morning Musume, and Miki Fujimoto became sub-leader as of July 15, 2005.

Just days after Yaguchi resigned, on April 27, 2005, the group's twenty-sixth single, "[[Osaka Koi no Uta]]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_28/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070309162252/http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_28/index.html|url-status=dead|title=Up-Front Works Discography – Osaka Koi no Uta|archive-date=March 9, 2007}}</ref> was released. The final version featured Yaguchi still, presumably because they did not have enough time to rerecord and remix it. The lyrics are in an [[Osaka dialect]]. This single was also Rika Ishikawa's last. She left on May 7, 2005, to assume full-time leadership of the Hello! Project trio known as [[v-u-den]].

Kusumi's first single with Morning Musume was July's "[[Iroppoi Jirettai]]",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_29/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302114916/http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_29/index.html|url-status=dead|title=Up-Front Works Discography – Iroppoi Jirettai|archive-date=March 2, 2007}}</ref> a flamenco styled song, which was considered to be the biggest hit of the year—selling around 20,000 more copies than anything else. A 3 city handshake event was organized for the promotion of this single.

Morning Musume's last single of 2005 was "[[Chokkan 2: Nogashita Sakana wa Ōkiizo!]]",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_36/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070303074055/http://www.up-front-works.jp/discography/zetima/29/s_36/index.html|url-status=dead|title=Up-Front Works Discography – Chokkan 2: Nogashita Sakana wa Ōkiizo!|archive-date=March 3, 2007}}</ref> which was a remake of a previous album-only song about the importance of using your intuition and not taking good things for granted. "Koi wa Hassō Do The Hustle!" was going to be the title track for the single, but due to poor preview results, became the coupling track instead.

On December 31, 2005, former Morning Musume members Mari Yaguchi, Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Ai Kago, Nozomi Tsuji, Rika Ishikawa, Maki Goto, and Kei Yasuda joined the current lineup of Morning Musume to perform the group's signature hit "Love Machine" on the 2005/2006 edition of ''[[Kōhaku Uta Gassen]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cultofpop.com/?p=146|title=Project's Kouhaku Medley|website=www.cultofpop.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060314185347/http://www.cultofpop.com/?p=146 |archive-date=14 March 2006 |url-status=usurped}}</ref>The performance was Yaguchi's first since leaving Morning Musume eight and a half months earlier.