Utada Hikaru, who has also gone by Hikaru Utada and the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo, as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name "Cubic U", Utada released her English-language début album Precious in early 1998, but was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language début First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the massive success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell" and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999. First Love eventually became the country's best-selling album of all time.
Mai Kuraki is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter and producer. Kuraki debuted in 1999 with the single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow". In 2000, she released her debut album, Delicious Way, which debuted at number-one and sold over 2,210,000 copies in its first week. Kuraki is one of a few female artists in Japan to have their first four studio albums to debut at top of the Oricon album chart.
Namie Amuro is a Japanese recording artist, producer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and entrepreneur. A leading figure of the Japanese entertainment industry since the early 90s, Amuro is known for breaking the youthful idol stereotype of J-Pop, her experimentation across music styles, and for her visual imagery in music videos and live performances. Due to her career longevity, resilience, professionalism, efforts behind-the-scenes in the music industry, and lifestyle, she is a pop culture icon in Japan and Asia. She has been referred to as "the diva of the Heisei era" and the "Queen of Japanese Pop", and has been recognized as having the influence and career impact domestically as artists such as Janet Jackson and Madonna in Western music and pop culture.
First Love is the debut Japanese-language studio album by Japanese recording artist Utada Hikaru, released on 10 March 1999 on Toshiba-EMI. Born and raised in New York City to music-oriented parents, Utada moved to Tokyo to attend Seisen International School and American School in Japan. From there, she began writing and composing music for her debut effort. Utada, her father Teruzane Utada and producer Akira Miyake produced the album and remain her two main co-producers and composers.
Junko Iwao is a Japanese voice actress and singer. Her most notable role is in Cardcaptor Sakura, providing the voice to Sakura's best friend, Tomoyo Daidōji. She also voiced lead character Mima Kirigoe in Perfect Blue, Ceres in Ceres, Celestial Legend, and Kikyo in Hunter x Hunter. In video games, she voiced Pai Chan in Virtua Fighter, Mint in Tales of Phantasia and Serika in To Heart.
Kumiko Kōda, known professionally as Koda Kumi, is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. After debuting with the single "Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, "Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba", were used as themes for the video game Final Fantasy X-2. Her popularity grew with the release of her fourth studio album Secret (2005), her sixteenth single "Butterfly" (2005), and her first greatest hits album Best: First Things (2005), reaching the number-three, number-two, and number-one spots respectively.
TVXQ, an initialism for Tong Vfang Xien Qi, is a South Korean pop duo consisting of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. They are known as Tohoshinki in Japanese releases, and are sometimes referred to as DBSK, an abbreviation of their Korean name Dong Bang Shin Ki (Hangul: 동방신기). Their name roughly translates to "Rising Gods of the East".
A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artists' earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. As of 2007, the best-selling remix album of all time was Michael Jackson's Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1997).
NEWS is a four-member Japanese band consisting of Keiichiro Koyama, Takahisa Masuda, Shigeaki Kato and Yuya Tegoshi. The group's name is an acronym based on the cardinal directions. Formed in 2003 by Johnny Kitagawa as a nine-member group under the label Johnny's Entertainment, NEWS released a promotional single "NEWS Nippon", which was used for the World Cup of Volleyball Championships. In 2004, Takahiro Moriuchi left the group and the remaining eight members released their debut single, "Kibō: Yell", which debuted atop the Oricon charts.
Yui, stylized as YUI or yui, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. Born and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, she played live at various locations in her hometown before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 years old, and released her debut single months later. Her singles, however, were only met with moderate success until the breakout "Good-bye Days", which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry's rising stars.
BUT / Aishou(愛証 / Love Proof) is singer-songwriter Koda Kumi's 35th single and was released on March 14, 2007. It was her first single of 2007 and first to bring her new era, Kingdom. The single was a limited purchase, only being sold from March 2007 to May 2007. It charted #2 on Oricon and stayed on the charts for fourteen weeks. The single was released the same day as her third compilation album, Best ~Bounce & Lovers~, which was also of limited release.
Arashic is the sixth studio album of the Japanese boy band Arashi. The album was released on July 5, 2006 in Japan under their record label J Storm in two editions: a limited CD+DVD version and a regular CD version. The album was the first album of the group to be released not only in Japan, but in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand as well. In Korea, the first 10,000 copies of the album were sold out on the first day and topped the non-Korean sales charts in the third week of July.
Complete Best is a greatest hits album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released exclusively in Japan on 27 February 2008. It reached number three on the Oricon Albums Chart, was certified Gold by the RIAJ and has sold 173,100 copies in Japan in 2008.
Shota Shimizu is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician from Yao, Osaka, Japan, who debuted in 2008. On June 1, 2008, Shimizu performed at Central Park in New York City, USA, during the annual Japan Day Festival. Shota Shimizu went to a local Christian school in Osaka where he learned how to sing gospel music. He became captivated with soul music, which is how his music career started. He was inspired by Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, and Ray Charles.
Summer Tour 2007 Final Time: Kotoba no Chikara is a DVD release of Japanese boy band Arashi. It was released on April 16, 2008 by their record label J Storm. Summer Tour 2007 Final Time: Kotoba no Chikara documented Arashi's summer concert at Tokyo Dome in correspondence with their Time album.
Hajimemashite is the 11th studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima, released in October 1984.
A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu. is the second studio album by Japanese band GReeeeN. It was released on June 25, 2008, and is certified by RIAJ for shipment of 1 million copies.
CNBLUE is a South Korean pop rock band formed in 2009. The band consisted of Jung Yong-hwa, Lee Jong-hyun, Kang Min-hyuk (drums), and Lee Jung-shin (bass). First bassist Kwon Kwang-jin left the band after they released their debut Japanese extended play Now or Never in 2009, and was replaced by Lee Jung-shin.
The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise has had various soundtracks, remix albums and compilations released around it. The franchise has sold more than 9 million albums and singles.
Made Series is the fifth Japanese studio album by South Korean boy band Big Bang. It was set to be released on February 3, 2016 including 11 songs: 3 Japanese versions and the original 8 songs already released in Korean in 2015 from the Made album.
