Charts: Arashi sells half a million

[Tokyograph News]

Arashi's latest single, "Believe / Kumori Nochi, Kaisei," dominated the charts this past week. With roughly 502,000 copies sold, it has become the best-selling single of 2009 so far. It is also the first to break half a million in its opening week since KAT-TUN's "Real Face" (754,000) in April 2006. Arashi achieved the same feat once before with their debut single "A-RA-SHI" (557,000) in 1999.

New singles flooded the top ten, occupying the next seven spots behind Arashi. The releases came from GLAY, AKB48, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, Yuna Ito, YUKI, Ken (of L'Arc~en~Ciel), and ROCK'A'TRENCH.

On the album rankings, FUNKY MONKEY BABYS edged out a win with their aptly named third album, "FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 3." The album sold 80,000 copies, only 2,000 more than Chatmonchy's "Kokuhaku." Also in the top ten were JUJU, supercell, Mika Nakashima, Dragon Ash, Kalafina, and AI.

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