Minami Takahashi (?? ??? Takahashi Minami, born 8 April 1991 (age 27) in Tokyo, Japan) is a former member of the Japanese idol girl group AKB48 under Team A. She became the first General Director (??? s?kantoku) of AKB48 and its sister groups. In an interview with Nippon Television in June 2010, AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto described her as the "eldest daughter of the 48 sisters". She is commonly part of the main lineup for the AKB48 singles. She is a member of the AKB48 sub-group NO3B, along with AKB48 member Minami Minegishi and ex-member Haruna Kojima.

In August 2005, Takahashi become one of the 30th HoriPro Talent Contest's 15 final candidates, but she did not win the competition's Grand-Prix prize. In October 2005, she participated in the first AKB48 audition and beat 7,924 other applicants to be chosen as one of the 24 founding members of the group. According to Tomonobu Togasaki, the manager of the AKB48 Theater, she had two unofficial advantages going for her, in that both her birthday (April 8; 1991-04-08) and her height (148 cm) contain the number "48". She debuted with Team A on December 8, 2005.

In 2008, NO3B members, including Takahashi, appeared in the TV Tokyo drama Men Dol. She starred as Nami/Kai in this television series.

On 23 August 2009, Takahashi was officially announced as the captain of AKB48's Team A.

Three years later, on 24 August 2012, with Mariko Shinoda replacing her as the captain of Team A, Minami Takahashi was promoted to be the General Director of the entire AKB48 enterprise, including all sister groups.

Takahashi appears regularly in the AKB48 singles as one of the group's key singers. In addition, Minami frequently represents AKB48 on TV programs such as Music Station, and in other of the group's publicity events. She was also scheduled to take part in the AKB48's 3-day live concert event titled "Takamina ni tsuite ikimasu" (????????????, lit. "We will follow Takamina"), which was to have been held on 25–27 March 2011 at the Yokohama Arena but was cancelled due to the 2011 T?hoku earthquake and tsunami.


Minami Takahashi at the opening ceremony for the 4th annual Tokyo Detention House Exhibition, October 2015.
On August 25, 2012, the second day of AKB48 Tokyo Dome Concert, it was announced by Max Hole that Takahashi would make her solo debut with the company, through its Nayutawave Records label. The single, titled "Jane Doe", was released on April 3, 2013. It is the opening theme song for the Fuji Television TV drama Saki, which stars Yukie Nakama.

On December 8, 2014, the 9th Anniversary of AKB48 Theater, it was confirmed by Takahashi herself that she would officially leave AKB48 exactly one year later, or December 8, 2015, the 10th Anniversary of the AKB48 Theater. Yui Yokoyama will then succeed her job as the General Director of AKB48.

On October 25, 2015, during the handshake and autograph event at Pacific Yokohama had announced the details of AKB48's 42nd Single and Request Hour 2016. The 42nd Single will be released on December 9, 2015. She will be the Center which will be her final appearance on an AKB48 single.[

On March 26 to 27, 2016, her graduation concert titled "Congratulation Takahashi Minami Graduation "148.5cm Have Seen a Dream" in Yokohama Stadium" was held at Yokohama Stadium, with her last theater performance on April 8, 2016.