Ayu's taxes and income for 2004
 

Time again for the Japanese government to release taxpayer info for last year.

In 2004 Ayu paid 137,850,000 yen (US$1,288,800) in taxes. Based on this her income is estimated at 379,290,000 yen (US$3,546,092).

Sanspo has a table of the top earning female singers. The first number is the estimated income in yen. The number in parenthesis is the estimated income in US dollars.

Hikaru Utada - 995,780,000 ($9,309,835)
Ayumi Hamasaki - 379,290,000 ($3,546,092)
MISIA - 197,750,000 ($1,848,822)
Mai Kuraki - 175,950,000 ($1,645,007)
Kaori Mochida - 161,750,000 ($1,512,248)
Hitomi Yaida - 103,560,000 ($968,212)
Aya Matsuura - 76,180,000 ($712,229)
Namie Amuro - 72,640,000 ($679,132)
Rimi Natsukawa - 60,890,000 ($569,278)
Chihiro Onitsuka - 60,320,000 ($563,949)
Mika Nakashima - 56,640,000 ($529,544)
Ayaka Hirahara - 38,480,000 ($359,761)
Ai Otsuka - 37,590,000 ($351,440)
Yo Hitoto - 35,620,000 ($333,022)
Mari Yaguchi - 34,780,000 ($325,168)

Utada was the only entertainer to make the top 100 taxpayer list (she was #75). For comparison, the man who paid the most taxes in Japan (fund manager Tatsuro Kiyohara) is estimated to have earned about 10 billion yen (US$93,500,000).

Ayu's income has decreased significantly from what it was a few years ago:
Ayu's estimated income for 2003: 769,890,000 yen (US$6,694,000)
Ayu's estimated income for 2002: 935,300,000 yen (US$8,060,000)
Ayu's estimated income for 2001: 1,158,000,000 yen (US$9,100,000)


http://www.sanspo.com/geino/top/gt20...005051701.html

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The top male singers. The first number is the estimated income in yen. The number in parenthesis is the estimated income in US dollars.

Masahiro Nakai (SMAP) - 513,350,000 ($4,842,925)
Koshi Inaba (B'z) - 481,780,000 ($4,545,094)
Eikichi Yazawa - 467,320,000 ($4,408,679)
Tak Matsumoto (B'z) - 355,720,000 ($3,355,849)
Keisuke Kuwata (Southern All Stars) - 328,510,000 ($3,099,151)
Kazutoshi Sakurai (Mr Children) - 315,290,000 ($2,974,434)
Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi - 292,780,000 ($2,762,075)
Fumiya Fujii - 282,210,000 ($2,662,358)
Takuya Kimura (SMAP) - 271,670,000 ($2,562,925)
Saburo Kitajima - 262,000,000 ($2,471,698)

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/society/ch...004/actor.html

Go Hikaru!! :yatta

man ayu is rich

wow...ayu earns quite alot~thanks for the info!

O.O And Utada just released an English album, Collection CD and a single and made 9 million from THAT? Wow. I'm blown away ..

Do artists like Britney Spears, etc. earn a lot more than that?

Sorry lol I'm not much into the American music scene :shrug

That and the Nintendo CMs. Her best collection sold very well apparently (over 3 million copies).

I can't believe it sold that much :rubeyes

Ya, and other artists get more also.
But it seems like even good artists like Mika Nakashima and Mari Yaguchi don't get a lot of money .. and they are in the music industry where popularity is pretty high.

LOL Hikki is the example of what the word overrated means :P j/k

The competition is tough x_x

haha, yeah but we don't really see her EVERYWHERE and get annoyed by it like it happens with a lot of artists here.

The Japanese music industry works completly different from the American music industry. Artists are paid a certain rate, while producers and such get the first dibs. American artists generally get the lump sum, and then pay their producers, etc.

It's income for the calendar year 2004. I shouldn't have posted fiscal, sorry.

Yvette, some Japanese people are probably sick of some of their artists but just don't say it out loud .. unless some of us know Japanese people because of penpal services @_@;; .. But anyways ..

well atleast they're more open towards other types of music like american, people here in the states can be really closed minded sometimes :shrug

Wow, MISIA is third! :)

Thanks for the info, it's interesting. I was surprised Mika Nakashima was that far down.

wow..hikki made so much money!!! i wish i had that much money :)

Whos MISIA?

do artists in japan get paid by each cd they sell???
for example: they get paid Y50 for each cd n they sell 1,000,000= Y50M

thanks for the info