List of best-selling singles in Japan
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Japan has the second largest music market in the world. In 1962, Tokushin music reports was founded and became the leading provider of music sales in Japan. However their reports and charts are only available to industry insiders and are not available to the general public. In 1968 the Original Confidence was established and began providiing music charts to the general public with data collected from various retailers throughout Japan.
This is the list of 100 best-selling singles, based on the data by Oricon. This list doesn't include singles that were released before 1968, and is only from data collected from Oricons retail partners and not the record companies
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[edit] List of best-selling singles in Japan 1968-2006
| Rank | Year | Sales | Chart Peak | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1975 | 4.547m | 1 | Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun | Masato Shimon |
| 2 | 1972 | 3.256m | 1 | Onna no michi | Miya Shiro |
| 3 | 2000 | 2.934m | 1 | Tsunami | Southern All Stars |
| 4 | 1999 | 2.918m | 1 | Dango 3 Kyoudai | Kentarou Hayami, Ayumi Shigemori, Himawari Kids, Dango Gasshoudan |
| 5 | 1992 | 2.895m | 1 | Kimi ga Iru Dake de | Kome Kome Club |
| 6 | 1991 | 2.822m | 1 | Say Yes | Chage & Aska |
| 7 | 1994 | 2.766m | 1 | Tomorrow Never Knows | Mr. Children |
| 8 | 1991 | 2.587m | 1 | Oh! Yeah! / Love Story wa Totsuzen ni | Kazumasa Oda |
| 9 | 2003 | 2.573m | 1 | Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana | SMAP |
| 10 | 1995 | 2.488m | 1 | Love Love Love / Arashi ga Kuru | Dreams Come True |
[edit] Note
- Shoukichi Kina's Subete No Hito No Kokoro Ni Hana Wo was sold for estimate 30 million copies over worldwide, but it is worldwide sales.
- Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki was sold for estimate 13 million copies over worldwide, but it is worldwide sales and it released in October 1961, Japan.
- Hikaru Utada's Flavor of Life is the highest-selling digital single of all time, with over 7.7 million combined sales[1], but since Oricon doesn't count the digital sales of a single yet, it will most likely not be included in the best selling single list.
- GReeeeN's Ai Uta was sold for 5 million digital singles.[2]
- Machiko Soga's Oba-Q Ondo was sold for estimate 2 million Gramophone record and 4 million sonosheet in Japan[3], but it released in May 1966, Japan.
- Yujiro Ishihara & Shunko Makimura's Ginza No Koi No Monogatari was sold for estimate 3.35 million copies in Japan[4], but it released in January 1961, Japan.
- Hiroshi Wada & His Mahina Stars's Ozashiki Kouta was sold for estimate 3 million copies in Japan[5], but it released in August 1964, Japan.
- Yuzo Kayama's Kimi To Itsumademo was sold for estimate 3 million copies in Japan[6], but it released in December 1965, Japan.
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[edit] International
[edit] List of best-selling international singles in Japan 1968-2006
Japan has more million-selling singles than any other country, but few have come from foreign artists. From 1968 through 2006, only three singles by Western musicians have become million sellers.
The best-selling single in Japan by non-Japanese artist was written and performed by the one-hit wonder British singer-songwriter, Daniel Boone. In 1972, his single "Beautiful Sunday" scored #16 at the U.S. billboard hot 100 and reached #21 at British chart, but failed to enter the Japanese chart. Four years later, this song was featured in a Japanese news program, Ohayo 720. Because of this tie up, the record was reissued in Japan only and reached #1 at Oricon for 15 weeks.
The lead single from her 1994 holiday album, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You had its main success in Japan and the United Kingdom. To date Carey has sold over 15 million records in Japan and now is the 49th best-selling music artist there. At the moment, there is no Western musician more successful than her in the Japanese music industry. Along with Carey, Celine Dion had several million-selling records in Japan during the 1990s. In 1995, Dion recorded the song called "To Love You More" for a Japanese TV drama program Koibito yo.
After the success of the movie The Graduate, "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel was released in Japan. After the success of this single, their popularity has soared and now they and Queen are becoming the eighth and ninth best-selling non-Japanese music artists in Japan.
Jerry Wallace, an American country singer who succeeded on the billboard hot 100 in 1950s, sang the theme song for a Japanese TV ad starred by Charles Bronson in 1970. It became the biggest hit for him throughout his music career. The song title "Mandom" is a name of the company which advertised.[7]
The eleventh best-selling single by Elton John is also the second best-selling single worldwide. Until the release of this double A-sided single, his releases hadn't sold well in Japan for many years. It became his second top 20 hit in Japan since "It's Me That You Need", released in 1971.
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
| Rank | Year | Sales | Chart Peak | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1976 | 1.924.000 | 1 | "Beautiful Sunday"/"Sleepy Head" | Daniel Boone |
| 2 | 1994 (reissue 1996, 2000) |
1.263.720 | 2 | "All I Want for Christmas Is You" | Mariah Carey |
| 3 | 1995 | 1.241.160 | 1 | "To Love You More" | Celine Dion |
| 4 | 1992 | 810.080 | 5 | "I Will Always Love You" | Whitney Houston |
| 5 | 1968 | 810.000 | 1 | "The Sound of Silence" | Simon and Garfunkel |
| 6 | 1970 | 750.000 | 1 | "Otoko no Sekai (Mandom: The Lovers of the World)" | Jerry Wallace |
| 7 | 1983 | 750.000 | 1 | "Flashdance... What a Feeling" | Irene Cara |
| 8 | 1980 | 673.850 | 1 | "I'm in the Mood for Dancing" | The Nolans |
| 9 | 1971 | 0.67m | 1 | "Ani Holem Al Naomi" [Japanese Lyric Ver.] | Hedva and David |
| 10 | 1984 (reissue 1991) |
0.67m | 12 | "Last Christmas" | Wham! |
| 11 | 1997 | 0.63m | 1 | "Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight" | Elton John |
| 12 | 1973 | 0.592m | 5 | "Yesterday Once More" | The Carpenters |
| 13 | 1977 | 0.568m | 2 | "Sky High" | Jigsaw |
| 14 | 1970 | 0.558m | 6 | "Let It Be" | The Beatles |
| 15 | 1997 | 0.555m | 2 | "Venus" | Shocking Blue |
| 16 | 1976 (reissue 1996) |
0.542m | 5 | "I Need to be in Love" / "Top of the World" (double A-Side on reissued single)" | The Carpenters |
| 17 | 1991 | 0.518m | 3 | "Welcome to the Edge" | Billie Hughes |
| 17 | 1968 | 0.517m | 1 | "Massachusetts" | Bee Gees |
| 19 | 1971 | 0.505m | 2 | "Never Marry a Railroad Man" | Shocking Blue |
| 20 | 1971 | 0.475m | 5 | "Tombe La Neige" [Japanese Lyric ver.] | Salvatore Adamo |
| 21 | 1976 | 0.473m | 11 | "Jolene" | Olivia Newton-John |
| 22 | 1977 | 0.471m | 2 | "The Stranger" | Billy Joel |
| 23 | 1968 | 0.467m | 1 | "Those Were the Days" | Mary Hopkin |
| 24 | 1970 | 0.465m | 4 | "If We Hold on Together" | Diana Ross |
| 25 | 1970 | 0.458m | 7 | "Mister Monday" | Original Cast |
| 26 | 1970 | 0.454m | 3 | "Melody Fair" | Bee Gees |
| 27 | 1976 | 0.436m | 6 | "Take Me Home, Country Roads" | Olivia Newton-John |
| 28 | 1971 | 0.424m | 2 | "Mammy Blue" | The Pop-Tops |
| 29 | 1968 (reissue 1980) |
0.421m | 2 | "Daydream Believer" | The Monkees |
| 30 | 1976 | 0.416m | 7 | "Soul Dracula" | Hot Blood |
[edit] References
- ^ "Multi-product approach makes 'Flavor Of Life' by Japan's Utada Hikaru a contender for best-selling digital single in the world", EMI Group, 28 July 2007.
- ^ Sports Hochi, March 31, 2008.
- ^ [1] (Archive.org) (in Japanese)
- ^ SANSPO.COM (Archive.org) (June 24,2005) (in Japanese)
- ^ Daily Sports (October,2 2006) (in Japanese)
- ^ amazon.co.jp (in Japanese)
- ^ Official site for MANDOM
