[Raleigh]

As I said before, a retirement makes sense. Her wave of popularity has long gone and since then she has a family too. Maybe avex also wants to move on and work on newer artists... hitomi's not exactly young and her popularity is bound to fade rather than revive. Sure her sales aren't that bad but they aren't great either.

Also I wonder if avex would continue risking the "best" technique unless they were trying to get a final chance to milk an artist. Obviously people are growing sick of compilations and they have moved on after the best overkill. This probably points towards a retirement or maybe she wants to move to acting.