Arashi’s “Kite” soars to No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, selling 636,590 copies during the chart week dated July 27 to Aug. 2.
The quintet’s 58th single took the top spot by a wide margin after leading physical sales and look-ups, while also coming in at No. 2 for Twitter and No. 26 for radio airplay.
A bit of chart trivia: the super-group’s previous single, “Brave,” debuted at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100 last September after a close contest against the writer of “Kite” — hitmaker Kenshi Yonezu, who topped that week’s chart with “Uma to Shika.” “Brave” actually sold more CDs than “Kite” with 708,595 copies that week, coming in at No. 1 for sales, No. 2 for look-ups, No. 3 for Twitter, and No. 56 for radio. The weekly total for “Kite” was 39,590, surpassing “Brave,” which clocked in at 35762.05.
Arashi has another song in the top 10, “In the Summer,” which rises a notch to No. 5 after debuting at No. 6 last week. The veteran Johnny & Associates boy band is apparently ramping up its activities, as they now have less than six month until they go into indefinite hiatus as a group at the end of the year.
The songs at Nos. 2 to 4 remain unchanged on the Japan Hot 100 this week. YOASOBI’s “Yoru Ni Kakeru” holds at No. 2, with streaming sailing past the 10 million mark at 10,154,795 streams (from 9,992,759 last week), breaking the personal record for the duo and logging its tenth week at No. 1 for the metric.
“Yoru Ni Kakeru” has been leading the pack in streaming — the song at No. 2 for the metric, Eito’s “Kousui,” is currently at 8,941,927 streams — but a strong contender entered the fray this week: Kenshi Yonezu, who made headlines by surprise-releasing his entire back catalog on major streaming platforms, along with his highly anticipated new album Stray Sheep. Yonezu’s performance in the competitive metric is definitely something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups, audio streams from Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, AWA, Google Play Music, KKBOX, LINE MUSIC, Rakuten Music, RecMusic provided by Gfk Japan, dHits, Uta Pass and Spotify, plus karaoke data from Daiichikosho and XING.
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Billboard Japan Hot 100 Top 10 (dated July 26 to Aug. 2):
1. [97] Kite / Arashi (636,590 copies / none / none)
2. [2] Yoru Ni Kakeru / YOASOBI (none / 18,587 downloads / 10,154,795 streams)
3. [3] Kousui / Eito (none / 40,620 downloads / 8,941,927 streams)
4. [4] Night Diver / Haruma Miura (none / 27,605 downloads / 6,872,979 streams)
5. [6] In The Summer / Arashi (none / 73,857 downloads / 1,617,548 streams)
6. [7] Make You Happy / NiziU (none / 11,974 downloads / 7,014,080 streams)
7. [1] Navigator / SixTONES (34,093 copies / none / none)
8. [9] Hadaka No Kokoro / Aimyon (1,288 copies / 21,789 downloads / 5,994,330 streams)
9. [8] Kanden / Kenshi Yonezu (none / 35,063 downloads / none)
10. [12] Gurenge / LiSA (1,969 copies / 14,581 downloads / 3,810,245 streams)
[]: Position last week
( ): Physical sales / downloads / streams (Top 50 only)
This article originally appeared on Billboard Japan.
