The top 10 roster of the Billboard Japan Hot 100 continues to shift rapidly this month as three new songs break into the top 10 following the four debuts from last week.
On the tally dated May 3 to 9, J-pop boy band Johnny’s WEST leads with “Something New,” a wedding-themed track penned by hitmaker Aimyon. The group’s 16th single sold 211,396 copies in its first week to rule physical sales, look-ups, and Twitter mentions.
The septet’s previous single sold slightly more than the current one (227,615 first-week copies), but many brick-and-mortar music stores in Japan have been closed due to the third COVID-19 state of emergency, so “Something New” can be said to have fared relatively well in spite of this setback.
Debuting at No. 2 is Kaze Fujii’s “Kirari,” currently being featured in Honda commercials. The rising young singer-songwriter scored his first top 10 with his previous single called “Tabiji,” which debuted at No. 10 in March. “Kirari” is off to a better start, faring better in downloads (38,418 first-week units, “Tabiji” started off with 24,337) and streaming (5,071,563 streams, about double that of 2,494,342 for “Tabiji”), indicating his steadily growing reach.
Meanwhile, Official HIGE DANdism returns to the top 10 with its latest digital single “Cry Baby,” which performed much better in first-week downloads (22,068 units) than the band’s previous single, “Universe,” did when it peaked at No. 4 in March. The “Pretender” hitmakers’ new release is off to a good start at No. 10 on the Japan Hot 100.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and karaoke data.
The full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, dated May 3 to 9, can be seen here.
