Mikeru On Japanese Music Today

Namie Amuro's "PAST < FUTURE" was the top selling album this past week, with close to 331,000 units sold. At the age of 32, she has now become the first female solo artist to achieve #1 with an original album in her 10s, 20s, and 30s. She had three of them before her 20th birthday in 1997, followed by a couple more in 2000 and 2007.

Yusuke Kamiji had to settle for #2 on the charts with 167,000 copies, a little more than half of Amuro's sales. MISIA, Rina Aiuchi, and Thee Michelle Gun Elephant broke the top ten as well.

In singles, Masaharu Fukuyama's new song "Hatsukoi" captured first place with 151,000 in sales. The rest of the top ten was filled with fresh releases, from THE ALFEE, abingdon boys school, Buono!, Megumi Nakajima (as Macross Frontier character Ranka Lee), Yukari Tamura, The Birthday, and a sub-unit of Idoling!!!