10 year olds in Momusu is exactly what they need

Why does everyone in the blogging community and H!P fandom think the Morning Musume 9th gen auditions are making a mistake by looking for 10-17 year olds? A lot of people are saying adult members will look ridiculous around members that are preteens-teens. Newsflash! That's what Morning Musume has always done. When a member gets too old, and starts making the group less youthful, or a member is pretty much a senor citizen compared to other members, she leaves. Plan and simple. Morning Musume is a fresh and youthful idol group. They are NOT a mature or adult themed group. They tried that already. How soon you all forget about V-U-DEN.
If this is your logic, you must also think Nakazawa Yuko, Abe Natsumi, Iida Kari, Yasuda Kei, and Yaguchi Mari should have never left the group. They should have graduated all the young members and just left the old. Then they should have auditioned for new ones to fit around gen 1-2's age range. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? Do you realize how that would have destroyed the group? People must not because they are boasting the same ridiculous logic. It seriously makes no sense. Morning Musume is flopping lifelessly around and Tsunku is trying to give them much needed oxygen. The reason Tsunku is looking for 10-17 year olds shows that he still has a a few brain cells. It shows that Tsunku is far smarter then you think he is, and he is always right on target. And I'm going to tell you why.

The first reason he opened up the auditions for ages 10-17 is because of the eggs. Hello!Project has a lot of eggs, who are just gathering dust and are having their talent pretty much wasted. But more importantly H!P has a lot of young eggs. H!P right now has 26 eggs. And out of the 26 eggs 20 are eligible to audition for the 9th generation. That is a substantial amount of Eggs. It's almost like he planned this right from the beginning. Because you should also note that he didn't say Eggs could audition for the 9th gen until a few days after the 9th gen announcement. And I mean this factor of the auditions is so perfect and so brilliant, you'd have to be a fool to not see how Tsunku is a genius.
Now let's say for a minute it really was 100% LinLin, JunJun, and Eri's idea to leave Morning Musume. Let's also say they all came to him roughly at the same time to leave. And since they really wanted to leave, Tsunku has no choice but to let them leave. So now Tsunku is panicking because he lost 4 members in 9 months, leaving Morning Musume at a very bad place. He realizes he needs some fresh talent and quickly! Since Morning Musume will be reduced to 5 members Tsunku realizes the new members will HAVE to be prepared to step up and lead singles practically as soon as they join. Much like the 6th gen did. They didn't have to since Morning Musume was huge back then, but they still did none the less. This was said just to give you an example.
Now that being said, Tsunku realizes the odds of finding a random girl with an exceptional voice is pretty slim. And also realizes true talent has to sometimes be nurtured for a few years. Like Risa, KonKon, and Nono. So naturally the only conclusion Tsunku came to was to add Egg members. They've had years (some, not all) to polish their singing and dancing, and some of them are at an amazing skill level. You might think Tsunku has been neglecting the Eggs, but he hasn't really. He's picked the girls only when he felt they were really ready for it. He's added Eggs to both permanent and temporary groups. Such as Arihara Kanna, LinLin, Ongaku Gatas, V-U-DEN, Mano Erina, Milky Way, Shugo Chara Eggs, and even made the complete Egg group S/mileage.

The second reason he's asking for members so young is simple, he's looking for longevity. Ai and Risa have been in Morning Musume for 9 years. Maybe he's looking for new members to be in for a similar amount of time, if not longer. A 10 year old could conceivably be a member of Morning Musume for 14 years. We all know the longer a member is in the group the more popular she is/becomes. Mostly for the sake of familiarity. And watching an idol grow up makes you feel a lot closer to her. Berryz Koubou is such a popular group because they've been around for 6 or 7 years without a change in members. Making all the members decently popular.
And we all also know far too well that female idols have a specific time limit. And when their time runs out they literally spoil. And just like eating milk and bread a few days after the expiration date is perfectly fine, anything more than a few days is pushing it. Hence why the Elder Club graduated in the first place. Let's be honest here, after they started to get really old they lost a lot of their appeal. They started releasing singles less frequently and fell into obscurity. (Matsuura Aya just remains a mystery. But it's most likely because of her mature and boring later half of singles.) Hello!Project saw how they were dragging the company down and cut the ties. Well that's exactly what 5th and 6th gen will do to Morning Musume if they stay for much longer. They will completely drag down and destroy the group.
Remember how Yuko said she felt old when the 4th gen joined? And that she couldn't put up with 12 year olds running around, and that's what made her ultimately graduate? Well that's where Ai-chan is now, or will be soon. Because let's not forget Yuko handed over the reins to Ai. It's only fitting that they will share similar fates.

It also seems like a lot of fans are crying because they realize that longtime members, and favorites, time is running out. And fast! They are coming to the sobering conclusion that Ai-chan can't stay in Morning Musume forever. Ai is one of my least favorite members, and even I want her to stay forever because of her amazing voice. But everyone has to realize she just can't. And I understand that makes people upset, and also momentarily think irrationally.

So there you have it Tsunku is truly a evil genius, wizard, and magician. The way he can see into the future is amazing. They way he can see an awkward girl, or so-so singer, and can see the potential for greatness. The way he can predict what will be best for Momusu in the long run. There's no doubt in my mind that Tsunku is most likely a master chess player. Everyone is one step ahead predicting what Morning Musume will look like 3 months from now, but Tsunku is 3 steps ahead already envisioning what Morning Musume will look like a year from now. Completely incredible if you ask me.