Fans have been mourning over the death of ZARD vocalist Izumi Sakai last week, and their support for the singer has resulted in several of her releases skyrocketing up the music charts. In particular, her "Golden Best ~15th Anniversary~" rose to #3 on the latest weekly Oricon albums chart.

The best album (released last October) started the week outside of Oricon's complete ranking chart, which tracks the top 300 sellers. The day after Sakai's death, the album shot up to #6, and rose to #3 the next day. It hovered near the top of the charts for the rest of the week.

According to Oricon's numbers for the whole week, "Golden Best" sold about 41,000 copies, placing it solidly in third. That sales figure represents a 60-fold increase from the album's sales the previous week.

This is the first time that an album has risen from outside of the Oricon chart into the Top 3, ever since December 2002 when Oricon expanded its charts to include the top 300.

Sakai's agency also mentioned that within the same week, about 10,000 fans visited the offices in Tokyo and Osaka to pay their respects.