In October 2008, Yasushi Akimoto announced that he was going to revive the 1980s girl group
Ushirogami Hikaretai, using four members of
AKB48 and was renaming the group to Watarirouka Hashiritai. The group debuted under
Pony Canyon releasing a
double A-side single, "Hatsukoi Dash/Aoi Mirai" on January 28, 2009. The single entered the
Oricon single chart at number ten. On April 22, the group released their second single, "Yaruki Hanabi" which charted at number nine. In February 2010,
Ayaka Kikuchi joined the group changing the roster from four members to five. Their first single in 2010, "
AkKanbe Bashi," became the first single from any AKB48 sub-unit to reach number 1 on the
Oricon charts. On June 30, 2010, two members from AKB48,
Misaki Iwasa and
Mika Komori, were added to Watarirouka Hashiritai to form "Watarirouka Hashiritai7", but the name applied to their "radio-only" activities, as two singles and an album released on and after June 30 were under the name of "Watarirouka Hashiritai", not as "7" since the two newcomers were not included. They eventually debuted as "7" with their seventh single "
Valentine Kiss", a
cover version of
Sayuri Kokushō's single, originally written by
Yasushi Akimoto and released 25 years earlier. In mid-2011, Hirajima announced on the group's official blog that a new single would be released by the group on August 3 of that year. Kikuchi revealed on July 4, 2011, that the title of the song would be "Hetappi Wink". Both Hirajima and Kikuchi described it as "a summer-ish, energetic and bright song". This was the second time a single was released with the "7" in the group's name. On June 25, 2012, Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 took part in Yubi Matsuri, an idol festival produced by
Rino Sashihara from
AKB48. The concert was held at
Nippon Budokan before a crowd of 8,000 people and featured such girl groups as
Idoling!!!,
Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku,
Super Girls,
Tokyo Girls' Style,
Nogizaka46,
Passpo,
Buono!, and
Momoiro Clover Z. On August 24, 2012, during the
AKB48 in TOKYO DOME ~1830m no Yume~ concert tour, it was announced that
Aika Ota and
Haruka Nakagawa were transferred to
HKT48 and
JKT48 respectively. On November 13, 2013, it was revealed that the group would disband on Christmas and at the same time, release their first (and only) best-of album, titled "Watarirouka wo Yukkuri Arukitai". On February 9, 2014, their final concert was held at ZeppDiver City, Tokyo. ==Members==