That $400 million number has been mentioned on AHS several times, but there has never been any reliable sources for it.
I googled "ayumi hamasaki net worth", but most of the search results are blogs/random websites. They don't give any sources for their numbers, so they are not very credible sources.
The only somewhat reliable sources for total earnings would be the Forbes rich list for artists/Japan top 50, but she's not mentioned in either of them.
Forbes does estimate her income in 2002 to $9 million though.
Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/japan-billionaires/list/
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0707/094.html
This has also been discussed earlier here:
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15110
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30019
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmskalmn
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).
(...)
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 |
Super happy math speculation time:
If we assume that those numbers are correct, that she peaked her earnings in 2001/2002, and earned around 3-4million USD each year afterwards (2004-2013), that gives a total of 50-60 million USD.
We don't know how much she earned in 1998-2000. Probably not that much in 1998/1999, since her only income would be from CD sales. A bit more in 2000, because of the concert tour. So to pull numbers out of nowhere, maybe she earned 10-15 million USD from 1998-2000.
Add that to the total, and get 60-75 million USD.
Conclusion: that 400 million number is probably rubbish.