Ayu's taxes and income for 2004

[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).

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!!

[celebskin22]

man ayu is rich

[PickleCookies]

Originally Posted by celebskin22

man ayu is rich

$3m is not a lot of money. Atleast not enough to constitute her as "rich." I'd say she is more "well off."

[mui-gei-tal]

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

[Brittany]

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 ..

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by Brittany

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 ..

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

[Catzi]

Originally Posted by Brittany

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 ..

Exactly how I feel.

[greggerz189]

Originally Posted by Brittany

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 ..

me too...that's so weird. It pisses me off that Hikaru beat Ayu when her stuff sucked way more than 'MY STORY' and the 'Moments,' 'INSPIRE c/w GAME,' and 'CAROLS' singles.

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

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

[Brittany]

Originally Posted by y2687

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

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

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.

I can't believe it sold that much

[ImpactBreaker]

LOL Hikki is the example of what the word overrated means 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.

[JinHamasaki]

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.

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

Fiscal years begin in July and end in June (unless thats different in Japan too :x)

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

[ayu_fan929]

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

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.

Oh, and 3.5 million is great for only releasing "Memorial address", "No way to say", "Moments", "forgiveness", and "&". Fiscal years begin in July and end in June (unless thats different in Japan too :x)

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

[hiro]

Originally Posted by ayu_fan929

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

No i heard they get paid a salary. They don't get royalties from every CD sale. In America, they do get royalties.

Also, i think if they write the lyrics or compose the song, they get bonuses as well.




BTW: why does everyone say American music isn't diverse? That's a pretty ignorant comment. Its pretty diverse. The people always complain about American (or western) music are the ones that are stupid enough to boil it down to "Christina and Britney".

Originally Posted by hiro

BTW: why does everyone say American music isn't diverse? That's a pretty ignorant comment. Its pretty diverse. The people always complain about American (or western) music are the ones that are stupid enough to boil it down to "Christina and Britney".

I'm with you on that, although I happen to like Xtina and Britney, people tend to ignore the greater portion of music in America when comparing to Jpop. It's so ironic because if an American can't accept American music, how can you go around saying others are closed-minded?

Back on topic, it was kind of shocking for me to see that only a few female soloists got over $1 million USD for 2004 considering how much they promote and stuff. I guess that goes to show that popularity doesn't necessarily translate into a boatload of money.
Ayumi definitely peaked in 2001. Just look at the number of photoshoots she did then compared to now; her visibility in that sense has decreased but she's still everywhere thanks to endoresments. She still earns alot compared to the general public so there's no reason to feel sorry for her.

[Brittany]

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 ..