Maki Goto aka Maki biography

Maki Goto (born September 23, 1985 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese pop singer that was formerly associated with the Hello! Project. Gocchin was the only third-generation member of Morning Musume, and was the lead singer on many of their songs until her graduation from the group. From there, she took on a variety of images, from energetic to childish to badass, before becoming the resident sex bomb of H!P.

Gocchin joined Morning Musume in 1999 as the sole member of the third generation. Her first single with them, "Love Machine" reached #1 and sold over a million copies - it is the group's best selling single to this day.

Because of this success, Gocchin was put in a trio with Kei Yasuda and Sayaka Ichii called Pucchimoni. Their first single also hit #1, and sold short of "Love Machine" by only a few hundred copies. Ichii left the group in 2000, and Hitomi Yoshizawa was cycled in. Though never again reaching the rocket success of their first single, the string of singles released afterward all did very well. Gocchin was, unfortunately, shuffled out of Pucchimoni in 2002.

Maki started her solo career in 2001 with "Ai no Bakayarou" (Fool of Love), which hit #1 on the charts and is the only H!P solo release that has ever done so. However, dividing her time became a strain, and Gocchin graduated Morning Musume in 2002 to concentrate solely on her solo career. Her new status as a solo artist added her to groups such as Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, and DEF.DIVA.

In the beginning of 2007, Maki returned to Morning Musume as a part of its 10th anniversary unit, Morning Musume Tanjou 10nen Kinentai. However, she was the second member to drop out the group (Kaori Iida was the first) due to her graduation.

Maki graduated the company in October 2007 as a result of her brother's arrest and her suspected romantic involvement with one of the accomplices. Though the latter was only a rumor, it served to tarnish her reputation even further. Coupled with Maki's desire to control her own career, she left the company and has not looked back.

Desperate for a story, tabloids published pictures of Gocchin smoking in February-March of 2008. The story, however, has had no effect considering that her career is nonexistant at the moment. However, the irony becomes apparent, as Ai Kago had gotten in trouble for smoking in 2006, and Goto was her mentor.

Gocchin popped up again at the end of March 2008. Her blog was reopened, with the first two posts revealing that she was in Los Angeles for reasons unknown.