It’s been a very busy day for now former Morning Musume ’18 member Haruna Iikubo.  After a tenure of 7 years she has parted ways with the group, and also with Hello!Project.

Her graduation concert was held at Nippon Budokan, and was titled “Morning Musume. ’18 Concert Tour Autumn 2018 ~GET, SET, GO!~ Final – Iikubo Haruna’s Graduation Special“.  Haruna’s time to shine came during the encore call, when the entire arena was glowing with “honey” colored glow sticks, her official  member color.

Decked out in an appropriately colored honey outfit, it also embellished with brown giving a nod to her original member color “chocolate”.  Haruna selected the classic fan favorite Morning Musume song “KoiING ” as her solo graduation song.

Hello!Project’s leader and Haruna’s close friend Ayaka Wada made a surprise appearance on stage to give well wishes to Morning Musume sub-leader.

Fans didn’t have to wait for news regarding Haruna, right after her graduation took place it was announced that she had signed a talent contract with “Just Pro”, in affiliation with UP-FRONT.

Other former Hello!Project talents under Just Pro include Miki Fujimoto and Erina Mano. A FIERCE photoshoot showing off Haruna’s modeling skills were released with the announcement.

Furthermore, it has been announced that Haruna will serve as both producer and the voice for the brand new virtual idol “Ni-na“. She opened her very own YouTube channel, with the second and most recent video congratulating her “boss” on graduating. Expect further updates soon!

But wait there’s more, Haruna has also opened her very own official Twitter and Instagram accounts!

Meanwhile, Morning Musume who will soon be Morning Musume ’19 have already announced their next concert tour. Tentatively titled “Morning Musume ’19 Concert Tour Haru” the tour will begin in March 2019, and conclude on May 26th.

(images via jplop)