In 2011, Japanese boy band Exile held a nationwide audition event for young female artists. Originally, the event was to find members for the dance group named Flower, which was conducted by LDH and already featured four members, but they decided to also scope for a new dance and vocal group titled Bunny. After recruiting dancers Nozomi Bando and Harumi Sato, and three vocalists Reina Washio, Kyoka Ichiki, and Chiharu Muto, Exile's Hiro—the head producer and CEO of LDH—announced the "Girls Entertainment Project", which was later changed to E-Girls; he confirmed that it would consist of all members from Dream, Happiness, and Flower.