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Oricon (オリコン, Orikon^?) is a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan, primarily music charts. A portmanteau of original and confidence, Oricon is also the common name of Oricon Inc., the holding company at the center of the group.

The Oricon Charts are Japan's best-known music charts^[1] They are compiled from data drawn from some 2,000 retail outlets and provide rankings by category based on daily, weekly, and monthly tabulations. The company also provides sales rankings for DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products, as well as popularity ratings for television commercials based on panel surveys.

Oricon uses an "Oricon year" for reporting statistics on music, particularly single and album sales. As of 2006, the Oricon year runs from mid-December to mid-December (previously, December to November). Also, Oricon publishes the final week of December with the first of January, though these these weeks are reported discretely in the in album and single chart runs.

Contents 1 Policy 2 Controversy 3 Charts 3.1 Current charts 3.2 Past charts 4 Yearly Charts 4.1 2007 Oricon Yearly Album Chart - Top 10 5 Album Ranking 6 Best selling singles and albums January 1, 1999 – April 24, 2006 7 40th Anniversary charts 7.1 Total overall sales 7.2 Total number of #1 releases 7.3 Number of platinum (1 million copies sold) releases 7.4 Consistently having each release enter at #1 since debut 7.5 Total number of weeks spent at #1 8 References 9 External links

Currently, Oricon is counting sales of CD, DVD, video games and several other formats. Formerly, the sales of manga and books had also researched. Every Tuesday, the charts with results are published through a magazine called Oricon Style and on Oricon's official website. Every Monday, Oricon receives data from some already registered record stores. Naturally, merchandise released to select exempted markets cannot reach to the chart. For example, the debut single of the pop group, News, was released to 7-Eleven stores only. Since convenience stores are not added to the registry, the sales were not counted in the Oricon charts. Before this system, results on the charts depended on faxes which were sent from record shops. The record sales by Oricon were therefore not completely accurate.

In 2006, Oricon launched a lawsuit against journalist Hiro Ugaya when he was quoted in a Cyzo magazine article as suggesting that Oricon was funding their statistical data to benefit certain management companies and labels.^[2]

• Weekly singles chart (1968-01-04 – )
• Weekly albums chart (1987-10-05 – )
• Karaoke chart (1987-12-26 – )
• Tracks chart (2004-06-06 – )
• Weekly DVD chart (1999-04-05 – )
• Long hit album catalogue chart (2001-04-02 – )

• Weekly LP chart (1970-01-05 – 1989-11-27)
• Weekly CT chart (1974-12-02 – 1989-11-27)
• Weekly cartridges chart (1974-12-02 – 1978-04-24)
• All genre formats ranking (1984-05-24 – 2001-04-02)
• Weekly MD chart (Unknown)
• Weekly LD chart (Unknown – 2000-02-07)
• Weekly cartridges chart (1974-12-02 – 1978-04-24)
• Weekly Sell-video chart (1974-02-06 – 2005-05-30)
• Weekly Game Soft chart (1995-02-20 – 2005-11-28)
• Weekly Comics chart (1995-02-06 – 2001-03-26)
• Weekly VHD chart (Unknown – 1989-11-27)
• Weekly New Media chart (January 2004 – 2005)

The year-end charts that shows the sales of albums and singles in Japan.

	Artist	Album	Sales
1	Mr.Children	Home	1,179,863
2	Koda Kumi	Black Cherry	1,021,504
3	Avril Lavigne	The Best Damn Thing	850,000
4	Kobukuro	All Singles Best	828,953
5	Ayumi Hamasaki	A Best 2 -White-	717,908
6	Ai Otsuka	Ai am Best	707,179
7	Ayumi Hamasaki	A Best 2 -Black-	700,000
8	Yui	Can't Buy My Love	640,537
9	Exile	Exile Evolution	624,309
10	Sukima Switch	Greatest Hits	528,408

Source: ^[3]

	Album	Artist	Sales
1	First Love	Utada Hikaru	7,648,000
2	B'z The Best "Pleasure"	B'z	5,135,922
3	REVIEW	GLAY	4,875,980
4	Distance	Utada Hikaru	4,469,135
5	B'z The Best "Treasure"	B'z	4,438,742
6	A BEST	Ayumi Hamasaki	4,295,353
7	Globe	Globe	4,136,460
8	Deep River	Utada Hikaru	3,604,588
9	Delicious Way	Mai Kuraki	3,530,000
10	Time to Destination	Every Little Thing	3,520,330

Source: ^[4]

Singles [5] Artist Single Year Sales 1 Southern All Stars Tsunami 2000 2,935,000 2 SMAP Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana 2003 2,570,000 3 Masaharu Fukuyama Sakurazaka 2000 2,299,000 4 Misia Everything 2000 1,878,000 5 Ayumi Hamasaki A 1999 1,670,000 6 Utada Hikaru Wait & See ~Risk~ 2000 1,662,000 7 Morning Musume Love Machine 1999 1,646,630 8 Shūji to Akira Seishun Amīgo 2005 1,621,667 9 SMAP Lion Heart 2000 1,563,000 10 Utada Hikaru Can You Keep a Secret? 2001 1,485,000

Albums [5] Artist Album Year Sales 1 Utada Hikaru Distance 2001 4,469,000 2 Ayumi Hamasaki A Best 2001 4,295,353 3 Utada Hikaru Deep River 2002 3,605,000 4 Mai Kuraki Delicious Way 2000 3,530,000 5 Ayumi Hamasaki Duty 2000 2,904,000 6 Southern All Stars Ballad3 ~the album of LOVE~ 2000 2,836,000 7 Mongol800 Message 2001 2,729,000 8 Globe Cruise Record 1995-2000 1999 2,650,050 9 Orange Range musiQ 2004 2,649,000 10 Glay Drive ~Glay Complete Best~ 2000 2,637,000

In 2006 Oricon celebrated their 40th anniversary and released a list of the top selling acts and releases since the creation of the Charts. The winners were presented with the WE LOVE MUSIC AWARD in five different categories and they are:

Male artists

• Singles: B'z - 33,210,000
• Albums: B'z - 41,450,000

Female artists

• Singles: Ayumi Hamasaki - 20,621,416
• Albums: Yumi Matsutoya - 29,300,000

• Singles: B'z - 40
• Albums: Yumi Matsutoya - 21

• Singles: B'z - 15
• Albums: B'z - 19

• Singles : Kinki Kids - 22
• Albums: Ayumi Hamasaki - 9

• Singles: Pink Lady - 63 weeks
• Albums: Yosui Inoue - 68 weeks

Source: JmusicEuropa

• Oricon website (Japanese)