On April 8, 1998, B'z, one of Japan's most representative bands, released their 24th single and successfully took the number one spot on the Oricon charts again. On that same day, a 19-year-old female singer named Ayumi Hamasaki who had struggled in the entertainment industry for a few years released her debut single. The single peaked modestly at number 20 on the Oricon charts. At the time, neither she nor her mentor and producer Max Matsuura could have possibly known that this was only the beginning of a fairy-tale journey for both them and Japanese pop music.
It is not possible to talk about the past decade of Japanese pop music without mentioning Ayumi Hamasaki. In the past ten years, Avex Trax has claimed the highest market share among Japan's record companies, and Ayumi has been the company's best-selling artist. According to a financial report Avex released in March 2001, even as overall music sales lagged, Avex still managed to grow 12.6% in comparison to 1999, achieving 83.3 billion yen (US$794 million) in sales. Ayumi made up over 40% of that number. A music industry observer once joked that she alone was worth the same amount as H2 (Japan's ill-fated 2003 rocket which resulted in 43.3 billion yen of loss). More impressively, in 2001 Ayumi comprised 16% of Japan's total record sales, a staggering market dominance that she maintained for almost three years starting in 2000. Even in 2007, her tenth year in the music industry, she still generated seven billion yen in album sales to become the second best-selling artist of the year. This kind of pop longevity is unique in Japanese and global music.
So, how exactly did a high school dropout from a single-parent family become the face of J-pop?
In Japan's current music industry, no other female singer can compare with the sales and status of Ayumi Hamasaki. Though she may not have the best vocals or most acclaimed music among Japan's top female singers, her influence over pop music and trends is unmatched in terms of record sales, marketing, and management style, and it is hard to imagine any other singer rising to such fame in the near future. Ayumi Hamasaki is undoubtedly the very definition of J-pop diva.
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