Oricon Inc., established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as Original Confidence Inc., which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002.
Japanese rock duo B'z has released 22 studio albums, 12 compilation albums, nine extended plays (EP), 62 singles, and 20 live albums. With more than 86 million sales in Japan, the duo is the best-selling artist in Japan and with 100 million sales one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Japanese boy band timelesz has released nine studio albums, two compilation albums, 27 singles, and 15 concert videos. timelesz has also released 47 music videos.
The discography of Japanese singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu consists of eight studio albums, and twenty-three singles.
Japanese idol group Nogizaka46 has released thirty-one singles and six albums, as well as numerous music videos and concert performance videos. Million-selling singles have included "Influencer" and "Synchronicity", each of which won a Japan Record Awards Grand Prix, as well as "Kaerimichi wa Tōmawari Shitaku Naru" and "Sayonara no Imi". Album releases include the studio albums Tōmei na Iro, Sorezore no Isu, Umarete kara Hajimete Mita Yume, and Ima ga Omoide ni Naru made. The group also released a compilation of "under" songs, written for members who perform at concerts but are not part of the main selection group for promoting singles, with the title Boku dake no Kimi: Under Super Best. They released the 10-year-anniversary greatest hits album, titled Time Flies.
Japanese boy band JO1 has released three studio albums, one live album, two video album, nine singles, thirty seven promotional singles, and eighteen music videos with Lapone Entertainment. Formed through the reality competition show Produce 101 Japan, JO1 debuted in 2020 with the single Protostar and the Japan Hot 100 number-one song "Infinity". The single made the group the seventh Japanese artist to sell over 300,000 copies of a debut single in the first week. It was followed by the single Stranger and its lead track "Oh-Eh-Oh", both of which peaked atop the Oricon Singles Chart and the Japan Hot 100, respectively. The group's first studio album, The Star (2020), debuted at number two on the Japan Hot Albums chart.
Yoasobi is a Japanese pop duo formed in 2019. It consists of musician and record producer Ayase and singer-songwriter Lilas Ikuta, under the moniker Ikura. With the slogan "novel into music", the duo originally released songs based on selected short stories posted on Monogatary.com, a social media website for creative writing operated by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Sources later also come from various media like stories written by professional authors, books, letters, plays, etc.
"Yoru ni Kakeru" is the debut single by Japanese duo Yoasobi from their debut EP, The Book (2021). It was released on December 15, 2019, by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The song was based on Mayo Hoshino's short story, An Invitation from Thanatos, which was published on the creative writing social media Monogatary.com, and won the Sony Music Award, and the Grand Prize from Monocon 2019.
"Gunjō" is a song by Japanese duo Yoasobi, featuring an uncredited chorus by cover group Plusonica, from their debut EP, The Book (2021). It was released as a single through Sony Music Entertainment Japan on September 1, 2020. Inspired by Tsubasa Yamaguchi's manga Blue Period and based on a story text Ao o Mikata ni, the song is described as "a cheering song that inspires listeners by immersing themselves in what they like and expressing what they see."
"Yasashii Suisei" is a song by Japanese duo Yoasobi from their second EP, The Book 2 (2021). It was released as a single on January 20, 2021, by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, and released as a double A-side CD single together with "Kaibutsu" on March 24. The song was featured as an ending theme song for the second season of the anime television series Beastars.
BTS, the Best is the second Japanese-language compilation album by South Korean boy band BTS. It was released on June 16, 2021, through Big Hit Music, Universal Music Japan sublabel Virgin Music and Def Jam Recordings. The album is a compilation of their previous two Japanese-language studio albums, Face Yourself (2018) and Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey (2020). It was a commercial success in Japan, reaching number one on the Oricon Albums Chart, and earned the biggest first week sales for an album in 2021 domestically. BTS became the first South Korean group to surpass the 1 million sales mark for an album in the country.
Ado is a Japanese singer and songwriter. In 2020, at the age of 17, she made her debut with the digital single titled "Usseewa", which peaked at number 1 on Billboard Japan Hot 100, Oricon Digital Singles Chart, and the Oricon Streaming Chart. The song reached 100 million plays on Billboard Japan within 17 weeks of charting, which was the sixth fastest in history and the youngest for a solo singer. In 2022, her song "New Genesis" was used as the theme song for the anime film One Piece Film: Red and topped Apple Music's Global Top 100 charts.
The discography of Japanese duo Yoasobi consists of seven extended plays, twenty-six singles, two promotional singles, two video album, and thirty-one music videos. Four of Yoasobi's songs—"Yoru ni Kakeru", "Gunjō", "Kaibutsu", and "Idol"—received diamond certifications for surpassing 500 million streams by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the most among artists.
The Book 2 is the second Japanese-language EP by Japanese duo Yoasobi. It was released on December 1, 2021, through Sony Music Entertainment Japan, eleven months after their debut EP The Book (2021). It consists of eight tracks, preceded by their all singles released in 2021, and included the new song "Moshi mo Inochi ga Egaketara".
E-Side is the debut English-language EP by Japanese duo Yoasobi. It was released on November 12, 2021, through Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The EP consists of eight tracks from the duo's songs in the English language, including their previous-release singles "Into the Night", "RGB", "Monster", and "Blue". Konnie Aoki is in charge of translating all tracks into English. Commercially, E-Side debuted at number 19 on the Oricon Combined Albums Chart and number nine on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums.
The Oricon Combined Singles Chart is a record chart released weekly by Oricon—a major provider of information on the Japanese music industry. First published on December 24, 2018, it ranks the top fifty singles in Japan based on an album-equivalent unit system factoring physical CD sales, digital downloads, and streaming. It competes with the Billboard Japan Hot 100.
The Oricon Combined Albums Chart is a record chart released weekly by Oricon—a major provider of information on the Japanese music industry. First published on December 24, 2018, it ranks the top fifty albums through an equivalent unit system based on physical CD sales, digital downloads, and the streaming of songs. The Oricon Albums Chart only factors physical sales. The Combined Albums Chart is competed by Billboard Japan's Hot Albums, another multi-factor record chart.
"Shukufuku" is a song by Japanese duo Yoasobi from their third EP, The Book 3 (2023). It was released as a single on October 1, 2022, by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, served as the opening theme of the first season of the Japanese mecha anime series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (2022).
The Book 3 is the third Japanese-language EP by Japanese duo Yoasobi. It was released on October 4, 2023, through Sony Music Entertainment Japan, one year and ten months after their second EP The Book 2 (2021). Continuing with the "reading CD" concept as previous records, the EP spans electropop and synth-pop genres, comprising ten tracks, which were solely written and produced by one half of the duo Ayase.
