Namie Amuro Best-Selling Artist of 2018 in Japan

December 20, 2018

Tokyo--Japanese pop icon Namie Amuro, who retired from the world of show business in September, became the best-selling artist in Japan this year, according to music research company Oricon Inc. <4800>.

DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of Amuro's final live tour sold a record 1,757,000 units in the year through early December 2018, while her best album, titled "Finally," ranked first in the album division, selling 640,000 units. Combined sales reached some 19 billion yen.

J-pop girl group Nogizaka46 came in second, with sales of about 10.3 billion yen, followed by AKB48, also an all-girl idol group, with sales of some 7.8 billion yen.

The best-selling single was AKB48's "Teacher Teacher," whose sales reached 1.82 million units. The group retained the top position in this category for the ninth straight year. Jiji Press