Charts: Ayumi Hamasaki, Ikimono Gakari

Oricon’s first sales charts of the year cover the two-week holiday period from just before the new year up until now. The so-called “Kohaku effect” – releases getting a sales boost due to their appearance in Kohaku Uta Gassen – still applied, though its impact was less visible than usual, at least in the Top 10 rankings.

On the singles chart, #1 was Ayumi Hamasaki’s newly released “You were... / BALLAD,” selling 103,000 copies during the two weeks. Masaharu Fukuyama saw his latest single “Hatsukoi” climb back up to #2, though it was the only Top 10 single to benefit from the “Kohaku effect.”

The other new releases near the top were GACKT at #3, C-ute at #5, 9mm Parabellum Bullet at #8, and Saburo Kitajima at #10. Kitajima’s is perhaps the most notable of those, as it gives him the record for “oldest artist with a Top 10 single.” At 73 years and 3 months old, Kitajima far surpassed Hitoshi Ueki, who set the previous record in 1991 at the age of 64 years and 1 month old.

Ikimono Gakari retained the #1 ranking on the albums chart. Their “Hajimari no Uta” continued selling strong with another 161,000 copies. Noriyuki Makihara was the only other new artist on the top ten, with his two best collections occupying the #5 and #6 spots.

EXILE (#2) and Arashi (#4) both benefited from post-Kohaku boosts, as did British singer Susan Boyle (#7). As for Arashi, their “5×10 All the BEST! CLIPS 1999-2009″ DVD also climbed back up to #1, ten weeks after it first topped the DVD charts.

Source:
Oricon