Japan has the second largest music market in the world. In 1962, Tokushin music reports was founded and became the leading provider of music sales in Japan. However their reports and charts are only available to industry insiders and are not available to the general public. In 1968 Original Confidence was established and began providing music charts to the general public with data collected from various retailers throughout Japan.
Contents
- Best selling physical singles in Japan
- List of best selling singles in Japan 1968 present
- List of best selling international singles in Japan 1968 2006
- Best selling multi format singles in Japan
- Over 3 million copies
- Best selling singles by year
- References
This is the list of 100 best-selling singles, based on the data by Oricon. This list doesn't include singles that were released before 1968, and is only from data collected from Oricons retail partners and not the record companies.
Best-selling physical singles in Japan
Guinness World Records certified that Masato Shimon's "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" is the best-selling single in Japan.
There were several singles which achieved worldwide success. Shoukichi Kina's "Subete No Hito No Kokoro Ni Hana Wo" sold estimate 30 million copies over worldwide. Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" sold estimate 13 million copies over worldwide. However, those were worldwide sales.
There were many non full-track digital download singles in Japan. Hikaru Utada's "Flavor of Life" sold over 7.7 million combined sales. GReeeeN's "Ai Uta" sold 5 million digital download singles. However, those included the sales of non full-track digital download singles. Guinness World Records certified that Thelma Aoyama's "Soba ni Iru ne" is the best-selling full-track digital download single in Japan with over 8 million copies.
Machiko Soga's "Oba-Q Ondo" sold estimate 2 million single and 4 million sonosheet in Japan. However, a sonosheet was not a regular 7" single.
Yujiro Ishihara & Shunko Makimura's "Ginza No Koi No Monogatari" (1961) sold estimate 3.35 million copies in Japan. Hiroshi Wada & His Mahina Stars's "Ozashiki Kouta" (1964) sold estimate 3 million copies in Japan. Yuzo Kayama's "Kimi to Itsumademo" (1965) sold estimate 3 million copies in Japan. However, those were released before 1968 in Japan.
List of best-selling singles in Japan (1968-present)
Based on the list published by Oricon in 2008, and 2016.
List of best-selling international singles in Japan 1968-2006
Japan has more million-selling singles than any other country, but few have come from foreign artists. From 1968 through 2006, only three singles by Western musicians have become million sellers.
Best-selling multi-format singles in Japan
With over 9.2 million combined sales, Thelma Aoyama's "Soba ni Iru ne" is the best-selling multi-format single in Japan.
Over 3 million copies
Note:
Best-selling singles by year
The following is a table with the best-selling singles in Japan yearly by physical sales.