ayu really No.1 female singer in Japan ??

[ayumaria]

I know ayu's won so many reward, like "best jeannies" & always the top one in Oricon Chart.
But, hey... people who live in Japan ! Is ayu really the No.1 there ?
I mean if she was the most famous female singer in Japan ??

In my place, when people star talking about JPop, the first name appeared always be Hikki... I don't know why, but Hikki was so famous in my country ! There weren't many people who know about ayumi hamasaki.. I guess that explained why they don't sell most of ayu's original CD/VCD/DVD !