Elder Club members to graduate from Hello! Project

From Hello! Online:

It was announced on the Hello Project website today that as of March 31st, 2009, all of the members of Elder Club will be leaving Hello! Project.

Mass graduation or mass firings? You make the call.

The exact members graduating are as follows:

Morning Musume OG:
Nakazawa Yuuko
Iida Kaori
Abe Natsumi
Yasuda Kei
Yaguchi Mari
Ishikawa Rika
Yoshizawa Hitomi
Tsuji Nozomi
Konno Asami
Ogawa Makoto
Fujimoto Miki

Inaba Atsuko
Satoda Mai (Country Musume)
Saito Hitomi (Melon Kinenbi)
Murata Megumi (Melon Kinenbi)
Ohtani Masae (Melon Kinenbi)
Shibata Ayumi (Melon Kinenbi)
Maeda Yuki
Matsuura Aya
Miyoshi Erika
Okada Yui
Ongaku Gatas (presumably, Korenaga Miki, Noto Arisa, Sengoku Minami, Sawada Yuri)

For statements from Tsunku and Yuuko Nakazawa, visit the above link.

All I can say is that this shocked and saddened me, and I'll sincerely miss quite a few of them. H!P won't be the same ever again. Hopefully I'll still be able to keep track of their projects - if they even get any, for those that were hardly utilized in the first place.