Ogata Haruna graduated from Morning Musume。'18/H!P on 6/20 at Nippon Budoukan

[Starra]

She'll graduate at the last Budoukan concert of the tour in order to focus on her university studies. She wants to attend university and is unable to balance it plus idol work.
http://www.helloproject.com/news/8331/

Well at least now I won't have a dilemma over who my MM。oshi is. Whew!

[Chibs]

The wrong Haruna, Maachan will be devastated.

[Jessi]

Is this a joke??? It’s not April fools day yet. She JUST joined. Did she even do her minimum contracted 4 years ???

She’s probably my least favorite member in all of Morning Musume, so I’m not too upset, but it’s still pretty shocking.

[resop2]

I hope that AAA doesn't turn out to be a "cursed" group.

[Starra]

Sid she even do her minimum contracted 4 years ???

What's this nonsense? Several girls haven't lasted 4 years (MM。or otherwise)... Surely they can leave at any time, H!P seems to be pretty good about letting girls go when they want to (or in some cases when they have to).

[Shoujo Q]

Of all the 12th gen I knew it was either going to be her or Akane that left first, but didn't think it would be this soon. I'll miss her for sure, but wish her the best on her future career goals.
Shame she didn't stay, she could have made a great variety idol I think, if they let her blossom a little more.

[Moh]

I'm surprised, but uhhhh at least it's not for a health issue. It's nice that she wants to focus on her education.

[Rysaria]

Wonder if I'll latch onto someone else as hard as her or just let my interest drift into another group... I'm not at all surprised and I felt something was off with either her or Maachan (though that birthday hint of a photobook kept me hopeful she'd last a while longer).

In a way, I'm glad. I'm glad she's deciding her future even though I looked forward to her blooming a bit more and becoming more popular. I'm glad that people's poor judgement of her (singing/weight criticism) won't reach her anymore. I'm glad I can now enjoy Maria and Akane a bit more.

Ahhh what a bummer.

[Jessi]

Sid she even do her minimum contracted 4 years ???

What's this nonsense? Several girls haven't lasted 4 years (MM。or otherwise)... Surely they can leave at any time, H!P seems to be pretty good about letting girls go when they want to (or in some cases when they have to).

Nothing too serious. Just a theory that I have that contracts are for four years and after the four years are up the girls can sort of leave without much fuss from management. Looking now (and I can’t belive this much time has passed) it’s almost four years now for Ogata 2014-2018. I am guessing management probably is letting her go a little early because of university. (Kobushi could also have made them more lax about encouraging anyone to stay longer than they really want to, but again all I can do is speculate)

It’s just a thing I noticed since few girls leave earlier than 4 years and the ones who do don’t usually get a graduation concert or much fanfare. But no I don’t think it’s something forced strictly on the girls (although it’s probably socially frowned upon) Probably a lot of girls take the end of their contracts as a kind of time to reflect and decide if they want to stay or leave and many stay but many decide they have other goals and dreams they want to accomplish.

Edit: to add, managements reaction to Saki leaving 1st gen smileage is what got me on to this idea of contracts as management seemed really upset by her decision to leave the group and considered her immature (from what I think was ending her contract early) From there after a few graduations I realized four years seems to be the acceptable amount of time before someone can graduate. I also think many girls want to leave earlier and hold out until the contracts end. (See: Koharu and also Riho+Kanon)

[AyuHikaru]

I've always heard it was three years, as that's around the time Maki, Junjun, and Linlin all graduated (Probably others, but I can't remember) and the Junlin one was when the talk about 3 year contracts really became a thing. I heard they soft confirmed it (Saying they graduated because their contracts were up without the ability to renew) but I never did see any evidence for that...
This also puts Haachin right at the window. Sept 2014 --> June 2018.

ALSO... WHHAAAATT?

I wasn't expecting someone from 12th gen to graduate so quickly.