Top 50 Best Selling Artists in Japan
 

Here is the ranking from Music Station; the numbers to the right are the sales figures, and you can download the file from http://mullemeck.serveftp.org/jps_be...etails&id=3274

50 Mariya Takeuchi 13,400,000
49 Mariah Carey 13,460,000
48 T-BOLAN 13,610,000
47 WANDS 13,730,000
46 Eikichi Yazawa 13,930,000
45 Chiharu Matsuyama 14,030,000
44 JUDY AND MARY 14,130,000
43 Mai Kuraki 14,220,000
42 Kyoko Koizumi 14,230,000
41 Shizuka Kudo 14,820,000
40 Miho Nakayama 14,970,000
39 Miki Imai 15,220,000
38 Checkers 15,300,000
37 Shinichi Mori 15,400,000
36 Morning Musume 15,470,000
35 Hiromi Go 15,620,000
34 Kenji Sawada 15,660,000
33 Yousui Inoue 15,670,000
32 Kyosuke Himuro 15,710,000
31 Momoe Yamaguchi 16,190,000
30 MISIA 17,150,000
29 SPITZ 18,290,000
28 KOME KOME CLUB 18,320,000
27 Hiroshi Itsuki 18,700,000
26 Masaharu Fukuyama 18,760,000
25 SPEED 19,280,000
24 Noriyuki Makihara 19,830,000
23 Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi 20,380,000
22 KinKi Kids 20,790,000
21 Miyuki Nakajima 21,310,000
20 TRF 21,500,000
19 Every Little Thing 21,630,000
18 Maki Ohguro 21,890,000
17 TUBE 23,880,000
16 Akina Nakamori 25,100,000
15 Namie Amuro 25,750,000
14 L'Arc~en~Ciel 25,760,000
13 SMAP 28,400,000
12 globe 28,600,000
11 Seiko Matsuda 29,260,000
10 CHAGE and ASKA 31,220,000
9 Hikaru Utada 32,160,000
8 ZARD 35,450,000
7 GLAY 35,800,000
6 Yumi Matsutoya 37,790,000
5 DREAMS COME TRUE 40,030,000
4 Ayumi Hamasaki 41,030,000
3 Southern All Stars 44,680,000
2 Mr.Children 46,220,000
1 B'z 71,640,000

Oh, go Ayu. nice figure there. I've heard of B'z... never heard any of the music.

Nice to see Larc high up there as well, and Namie and Hikki

Was there really any doubt about B'z? lol

Nice to see some of my faves in there. Go Hikki, ELT, Namie and MoMusu

No one is even close to B'z, there's like a huge difference between them and Mr. Children... Haha they rock! Southern All Stars! Yes cool! I think Ayu might possibly be able to pass them someday though, maybe not Mr. Children. Good list, although half of them I've never ever heard of.

YAY NAMIE AMURO she made the list I knew she could do it

Go ELT on making the top 20! I'm surprised Ayu isn't actually that far behind SAS.

YAY!!! Go globe and Ayu!!! ^^ It's good to see Ayu in the top 5. Surprised actually that globe is at # 12.

Go Ayu ^_^

congrats to ayu, hikki, Amuro Namie, and L'Arc~en~Ciel! I am surprise that TRF made it to no.20.

Go Ayu! I was surprised to see such a huge gap between B'z and Mr. Children as well...and who knew that globe would be that high up there? Too bad I haven't heard many of these artists before...they must be pretty good to be on the list.

What accounts for the singular sales figures of B'z? I have a bunch of their songs, but I'm not familiar with their profiles and history.

go ayu, it nice to see namie, kinki kids, elt up in the chart

Well they've been out since '89, and have I think the 3rd best selling album in Japan 'THE BEST PLEASURE'... The guitarist Tak Matsumoto is probably considered the best guitarist in all of Asia (has a Gibson signature guitar), and I think all (or most) of their singles have debuted at #1 on Oricon... They toured America too. And as for their record sales...

ALBUMS
M OFF THE ROCK B'z 1989/05/21
M BREAK THROUGH B'z 1990/02/21
M WICKD BEAT B'z 1990/06/21
M RISKY B'z 1990/11/07
M MARS B'z 1991/05/29
3M IN THE LIFE B'z 1991/11/27
2M RUN B'z 1992/10/28
2M FRINENDS B'z 1992/12/09
M THE 7TH BLUES B'z 1994/03/02
3M LOOSE B'z 1995/11/22
M FRIENDS II B'z 1996/11/25
M FLASH BACK B'z 1997/04/26
2M SURVIVE B'z 1997/11/19
5M B'Z THE BEST 'PLEASURE' B'z 1998/05/20
4M B'Z THE BEST 'TREASURE' B'z 1998/09/20
M BROTHERHOOD B'z 1999/07/14
2M B'Z THE 'MIXTURE' B'z 2000/02/23
2M ELEVEN B'z 2000/12/06
M GREEN B'z 2002/07/03
M THE BALLADS B'z 2002/12/11

SINGLES
M BAD COMMUNICATION B'z 1989/10/21
M LADY NAVIGATION B'z 1991/03/27
M ALONE B'z 1991/10/30
M BLOWIN' B'z 1992/05/27
M ZERO B'z 1992/10/07
2M AI NO MAMANI WAGAMAMANI BOKU WA KIMI DAKEWO KIZUTSUKENAI B'z 1993/03/17
M HADASHINO MEGAMI B'z 1993/06/02
M DON'T LEAVE ME B'z 1994/02/09
M MOTEL B'z 1994/11/21
M NEGAI B'z 1995/05/31
M LOVE ME, I LOVE YOU B'z 1995/07/07
M LOVE PHANTOM B'z 1995/10/11
M MIENAI CHIKARA/MOVE B'z 1996/03/06
M REAL THING SHAKES B'z 1996/05/15
M FIREBALL B'z 1997/03/05
M CALLING B'z 1997/07/09
M LIAR! LIAR! B'z 1997/10/08
M SAMAYOERU AOI DANGAN B'z 1998/04/08
M HOME/THE WILD WIND B'z 1998/07/08
M KONYA TSUKI NO MIERU OKA NI B'z 2000/02/09

from this site: http://www.mnet.ne.jp/~hbr/index_e.htm

To add to what Phantoma said, B'z is immensely popular throughout all age groups in Japan, and they have 34 consecutive No.1 singles since their 5th "taiyou no Komachi Angel".

ah thats cool ^^b i like a lot of the singers on that list.

so many on the list i never heard of, still pretty cool :D

Nice to see that Ayu's the top female artist!

Is Mariah Carey the only non-Japanese artist on the list?

Wow, such high numbers.
I'm happy to see Laurku at a pretty decent place.
As well as Ayu.
Meh, the highest selling American Artist is Mariah Carey with 14 million? o.O That's quite a bit. I bet her sales are more better in Japan than in America nowdays?

wow..cool number 4...
hope ayu can rise her position again..beat Mr.Children..
B'Z is really though..

oh BoA's not up there is she??

im glad :D

congrats to Ayu~

ayu is in the elite position... la la la so happy to see that..

hmm no Aikawa Nanase ?... what kind of a list is that ?
:grumpy
go Ayu ^^

*snorts*

Well~ of course B'z would be up there- they are quite good... I'm surprised Michael Jackson isn't up there o.O Aren't they crazy about him in Japan?

But still- GO AYUUUUUU!!!

ou congrats to Ayu! 41 million is quite an accomplishment.

congrats also to Namie, globe, and Hikki!

if they worked out the sales figure for japanese artists worldwide Ayu would be number 1!

interesting

ohhh, mariah is there too !! that's nice ! =D
i'm happy for ayu and namie.

hmmm im suprised about boa not being there...but i think its a god thing!! what about gackt? is he not that popular?

:\ If Ayu were around as long as B'z.. I think she'd have similar figures.. I mean, Ayu debuted about 10 years after them lol

Go ayu!

Does this include which year to which year are they the best selling artists? Or out of whole japan history, they're the top 50 best selling?

^ I think it's meant to be highest total sales for all-time in Japan.

However I don't see any really old artists on the list, so maybe they're only including sales from ~1980 onwards.

That said,
-Maybe record sales were lower in the 1950s/60s/70s in Japan.
-I expect sales back then were spread amongst a higher number of artists instead of mostly going to a few superstars as is more common today.

Who said Hikki had sold more than Ayu?

Ayu beat her, lol.

Momoe Yamaguchi was a star in the 1970's.

great to see ayu above hikki, but then hikki releases much fewer than ayu...so it isnt a fair comparison

woooo all my fav are in top 20!

congrats to larc *grins* ayumi mr.children namie n b'z!

(wow b'z is really far ahead in sales)

top 5! AYU ROCKS!
thanks for the news~

Congratulations to the first ones... Anyway, I'm happy for Namie; she is selling more copies than Morning Musume :lech