Iconic Female J-Pop Albums
 

Utada Hikaru - First Love

With almost 8 million copies sold, it is the highest selling album ever in Japan. Plus, its singles sold another 4 million copies

Biggest hits: Automatic, Movin' on without you, First Love

Mai Kuraki - Delicious Way

Although she's nowhere to be seen on the charts now, Mai Kuraki actually had a massive debut. The album sold 3,5 million copies, with its singles selling 3,7 million copies

Biggest hits: Love,Day After Tomorrow, Stay by my side, Secret of my heart

Ayumi Hamasaki - I Am...

The album elevated her as the pop empress, sold 2,3 million copies, with its singles selling almost 6 million copies

Biggest hits: M, Dearest, evolution

Namie Amuro - SWEET 19 BLUES

She sold 3.4 million copies of the album, and 4,8 million copies of its singles

Biggest hits: Chase the chance, You're my sunshine, Don't Wanna Cry

Koda Kumi - Black Cherry

She sold over 1 million copies with the album, she became a selling force thanks to it, and managed to move another million copies of its singles

Biggest hits: Koi no Tsubomi, Yume no Uta, With your smile

Kana Nishino - to LOVE

In 2010 Kana was EVERYWHERE. Every magazine, tv show, billboard... And the album just proves it. The album has sold almost 800.000 copies, with it singles being digital monsters and selling almost 5 million copies digitally

Biggest hits: Dear..., Aitakute Aitakute, Best Friend

YUI- Can't Buy My Love

YUI took the J-Pop world by storm with this album, which sold 700.000 copies and sold almost 500.000 copies

Biggest hits: Goodbye Days, Rolling Star, CHE.RR.Y

Ai Otsuka - LOVE COOK

Ai's peak album, selling almost 900,000 copies, with single sales of 700.000 copies

Biggest hits: Planetarium, SMILY, Biidama

Mika Nakashima - TRUE

The it girl of 2002 was Nakashima Mika, selling 1.1 million albums and 900.000 singles

Biggest hits: STARS, WILL, CRESCENT MOON

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Those were the ones I could think of, any other you suggest? (I'm sure there are tons)


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EDIT

ayaka - First Message

Her massive debut sold 1.2 million copies, with its singles selling over 625.000 copies

Biggest hits: Mikazuki, I believe

Kahala Tomomi - LOVE BRACE

This 90s superstar sold 2,4 million copies of her album, and 3 million copies of its singles

Biggest hits: I BELIEVE, I'm proud

BoA - VALENTI

One of the few korean female acts to make it big in Japan, she sold 1,3 million albums and 500,000 singles

Biggest Hits: VALENTI, JEWEL SONG

BENI - Bitter & Sweet + COVERS

I wouldn't say Bitter & Sweet is an iconic album but this was BENI's 1st album release under her new stage name after she left avex

And up to date , it's considered her best selling studio album and it's still my favourite album that BENI released til now

As for COVERS , it's probably the 1st covers album that contains songs that BENI sang/covered in English (which she translated the Japanese lyrics from English herself) & at that time when it was released , nobody even BENI herself expected it would sold so well . So much so that it was re-released in a CD + DVD format soon after

ayaka - First message (2006)
Her first original album which contains her biggest hit Mikazuki. It sold 1.2 million copies

Kahala Tomomi - LOVE BRACE
Amuro's rival back in the 90s managed to sell more than 2.4 million copies thanks to songs like I BELIEVE or I'm proud


BoA - VALENTI
One of the first K-pop artist to achieve success in Japan. Her second Japanse album surpassed the million mark in 2003

Matsuda Seiko - Utopia
Utopia is Matsuda Seiko's 7th album. It reached #1 and it also won the "Best Album Award" at the "25th Japan Record Awards"

@Mirrorcle Monster: I disagree with your comment about Mai-K. She doesn't sell millions anymore but her last compilation reached #2 on Oricon charts and all her singles has entered the TOP 10 which is quite an achivement for a singer who has been in the industry for more than 15 years.

ayaka - First Message
It sold 1.2 million copies, don´t know how much the singles sold xD

Oh I should've done more research, sorry! I didnt think she was selling decently, happy to hear it though

Also what you said on Nakashima Mika , you should have said LOVE if you're talking about sales wise because LOVE sold more than TRUE

And my friend said that CRESCENT MOON wasn't really a hit at that time when it was released

Even if it sold more, I would say TRUE is more remembered. And CRESCENT MOON was a limited single which sold all of its copies in two weeks, so it did pretty well. LØVE is a better album imo, and it contains Yuki no Hana, but I somehow felt that the STARS+WILL combo was a stronger force

Y'all are forgetting A BEST smh. That and also Kuu's first 2 bests. And BEST FICTION. Best albums have pretty significant roles in the Japanese music economy and history I feel.

Exactly. For Ayu you just have to mention A BEST. I mean, that album is 14 years old and it's still slaying the rankings (now the digital one).

And, yes, totally agree with Kuu's bests (specially First Things) and Namie's BEST FICTION as well :yes

I think that Mirrorcle Monster went by original albums only.

ayu's best selling original album is Duty though, not I am... =P

Do bands with female singers count?

Just wanted to say that strong sales doesn't mean "iconic", and that an album can sell millions and not become iconic just because of it. I would take a different route and see what album is often copied, referenced or target of tributes. I love Ai Otsuka, for example, but she never released an iconic album...

^ I agree with you.
The most iconic and probably most important iconic album is First Love. If we just mentioned that album and nothing else everything would be ok.

I think that you also have to ask yourself which album will be remembered in 10, 20, 30 years. I know some websites like to throw the word iconic around for their favourite singer, but in reality, there's definitely an impact aspect.

Well, you will be surprised but there are some Japanese that don't even remember First Love :P
But then not all Japanese are interested in every extremely popular artist, or that was, but they know some of their hits.

First Love IS pretty iconic, so much that it alone gave Mai Kuraki a career, but being iconic also doesn't mean every single person in the country is obsessed with it. What makes First Love iconic isn't it's huge sales, but the amount of artists that followed its aesthetics and it's pop culture impact. Something only becomes iconic through repetition, either from the artist themselves or from other people.


Ayu is a very iconic artist, and I would say (based on my perception of jpop, I'm not in Japan to fully live her impact as a popstar) that she has some iconic songs, albums, videos, looks and performances. A lot of her stuff from 1999 to 2001 are often referenced in other body of works and some of her performances (A Museum M, At03-04 No Way to Say, Kouhaku Seasons) are often shown on TV when people talk about her.

Hikki is also very iconic and she often has her songs, videos, albums and image, mostly from her first 3 albums, copied by other artists. I don't think she has any iconic performance, but her focus very little on performing... From the artists on the list she has the most iconic music through.

Namie Amuro has a very iconic overall image (and she uses mostly the same fashion style for the last 20 years to reiforce that). I would say she also has iconic songs and an iconic performance and dance style, but I don't know if she has iconic indivudual performances, or at least, I can't think of Namie's performances that are often copied. I think she has more iconic songs than a whole iconic album. I guess she tried to reach that effect with some of her 2nd peak releases, but I don't know how well it went as it is all very recent.

Koda has an overall iconic image, and that's pretty much it.

BoA has her own share of iconic releases, but in Korea... Her japanese stuff never had enough personality for reaching that.

And from those recent (15 years or less) jpop divas with a strong western followers, I think that's pretty much it... You have girls with hits, with good sales, but I can't think of much of them being copied and replicated enough... Sheena Ringo is a very iconic artist that wasn't mentioned... and there are people like Seiko, Yuming, Akina...

I think YUI and recently Kana Nishino have also achieved that impact. How many pop/rock girls with guitars and a less "artificial" image have we seen ever since YUI became popular? And how many R&B ballads have we heard ever since Kana became popular? Not only that, Kana also ruled the fashion world during her peak

We need to insert Misia here...

Marvelous album (2001) sold 1.63M with the singles supporting it sold total 2.5M (Escape, Everything and I miss you)
Album plus single sold around 4.1M which is amazing

her debut and second album are Iconic as well

Well, Kana's overall image is pretty much pasteurized Ayumi Hamasaki on girly mode 24 hours a day... The r&b ballads are most likely western influence + Hikki's presence still being felt. Also, people like Thelma Aoyama were already having big r&b ballads before Kana becoming big.

I can't talk about YUI because I know next to nothing about her...

It's also worth mentioning that Mother Father Brother Sister sold 2.6 million copies + her debut single sold almost 700k + 130k for her second single. Then there was LOVE IS THE MESSAGE, with 2.3 million, and almost 1 million in single sales.

I don't think many people realize MISIA's first two albums are still among the top selling records in Japanese history. I'm pretty sure MFBS is still in the Top 10.

MISIA's album was never in the top 10.
It's #38 best selling album in Japan.
The 2nd one being LOVE IS MESSAGE at #57.

This is the top 10:

(By millions)
1 765.0 First Love 宇多田ヒカル 1 1999/3
2 513.5 B'z The Best "Pleasure" B'z 1 1998/5
3 487.6 REVIEW～BEST OF GLAY GLAY 1 1997/10
4 447.2 Distance 宇多田ヒカル 1 2001/3
5 443.8 B'z The Best "Treasure" B'z 1 1998/9
6 429.4 A BEST 浜崎あゆみ 1 2001/3
7 413.6 globe globe 1 1996/3
8 360.5 DEEP RIVER 宇多田ヒカル 1 2002/6
9 353.0 delicious way 倉木麻衣 1 2000/6
10 352.0 Time to Destination Every Little Thing 1 1998/4

3 Utada's albums on Top 10, wow !