Kyodo news service says that Satoru Umeta was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to attacking the two 19-year-old singers with a saw at a fan event in May in northeast Japan. A male staffer who tried to protect them was also injured. All three were hospitalised overnight.
According to Kyodo, the presiding judge said the 24-year-old Umeta attacked them because he was frustrated over not being able to find a job.
Established in 2005, AKB48 has a rotating cast of more than 90 young women, and affiliates across the country and in Indonesia, China and Taiwan.