Yeah, it actually is a pretty nice honour.
I'm not a big fan (I'd like him a lot more if I actually liked his music :\), but I know he can be considering a true star in the Japanese music industry. He's been out for, what, fifteen years now? Almost fifteen or twenty million sold or something? (I remember reading a while back that it was a little over ten, so it must be a few more million now, I assume...) Impressive, especially for somebody's name you don't constantly hear.