Mariya Nagao is a Japanese tarento, a former member of the Japanese idol girl group AKB48. Mariya Nagao joined AKB48 as a 9th generation trainee in late 2009. On December 8, 2010, together with Mina Oba, Haruka Shimazaki, Haruka Shimada, Miyu Takeuchi, Mariko Nakamura, Anna Mori, and Suzuran Yamauchi, she was promoted to a full member, but stayed unassigned to any of the three teams until 2011 when Team 4 was formed. In the 2012 AKB48 elections (AKB48 27th Single Senbatsu Sōsenkyo) Mariya Nagao placed 39th. On November 1, 2012, she was transferred to Team K. In 2013 she was assigned to be one of the members to sing the title track on the AKB48's 31st single "Sayonara Crawl". In the 2013 AKB48 elections (AKB48 32nd Single Senbatsu Sōsenkyo) Mariya Nagao placed 35th. In the 2014 AKB48 elections (AKB48 37th Single Senbatsu Sōsenkyo) she placed 65th. In the 2015 AKB48 elections (AKB48 41st Single Senbatsu Sōsenkyo) she placed 69th. On December 7, 2015 Mariya Nagao announced her graduation from AKB48. On March 10, 2016, shortly before officially leaving the group (the graduation ceremony was due March 19), Mariya Nagao released her first photobook, titled Utsukushii Saibō.[8] With approximately 7,000 copies sold in the first week (according to Oricon), it debuted in the first place of the Oricon Photobook Chart.
