Last week on the album charts, Ayumi Hamasaki ended Namie Amuro's six-week run at #1, but unlike Amuro, she immediately faced strong competition the following week. Despite selling 119,000 copies, she was no match for the new "B'z The Best ULTRA Treasure" compilation from B'z, which sold 413,000 copies. This is their 23rd chart-topping album, extending the record that they set in June with "B'z The Best ULTRA Pleasure."

Only two other new albums made the top ten, both from hip-hop artists. The Sendai-based LGYankees made their first top ten appearance at #8, while ZEEBRA's sales were not far behind at #9.

On the singles side of the charts, V6 picked up first with 82,000 copies of "LIGHT IN YOUR HEART," the theme song to the new Ultraman movie. Angela Aki's latest song arrived at #3, followed by Nightmare's new tune. At #8, female duo Lil'B achieved their first top ten showing, edging out Tamio Okuda and Kazuyoshi Saito.