Namie Amuro's "BEST FICTION" attained the No. 1 ranking on this week's Oricon album charts. The album's first week of sales totaled 681,000 copies, the best start by any album this year. It narrowly surpassed EXILE's "EXILE CATCHY BEST," which sold 680,000 copies during its first week this past March.

"BEST FICTION" marks Amuro's 7th #1 album since she went solo in 1995. This is a new record among female artists who were originally in a group; Amuro was previously tied with Takako Okamura of Amin.

Two other new releases made it into the top 10. R&B group COLOR reached #6 with their latest, while a tribute album for Yu Aku squeezed out the #10 spot.

On the singles chart, Mr.Children's "GIFT" ranked #1 with 194,000 copies sold. It was up against "Hi wa, Mata Noboru," the debut single from Aladdin the second, which sold 152,000 copies. That group consists of the members of Pabo and Shuchishin, the two popular "baka trios" from Fuji TV's "Quiz! Hexagon II"

THE ALFEE's Toshihiko Takamizawa made #4 with his new song, and C-ute was not far behind at #5. The bottom half of the top 10 saw new releases by Remioromen (#6), RIP SLYME (#7), ALI PROJECT (#9), and Kalafina (#10).