, established in 1999, is the holding company

Holding company

A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

 at the head of a Japanese corporate group

Corporate group

A corporate group is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. The concept of a group is frequently used in tax law, accounting and company law to attribute the rights and duties of one member of the group to...

 that supplies statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 and information on music and the music industry in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter’s Oricon record charts in April 2002.

They are compiled using data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets (as of April 2011) and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in Oricon Style by subsidiary Oricon Entertainment Inc. The group also lists panel survey-based popularity ratings for television commercials on its official website.

History

Original Confidence Inc., the original Oricon company, was founded by the former Snow Brand Milk Products

Snow Brand Milk Products

is one of the largest dairy companies in Japan.In 2000, more than 14,000 people got sick from old milk sold by Snow Brand, the worst case of food poisoning in Japan. The company was criticized for failing to recall quickly....

 promoter Sōkō Koike in 1967. That November, the company began publishing a singles chart on an experimental basis.
Entitled (it means "surveys of total entertainment markets"), this went official on January 4, 1968.

Like the preceding Japanese music charts provided by Tokushin Music Report which was started in 1962, early Original Confidence was an exclusive information magazine only for the people who worked in the music industry. However, in the 1970s, Koike willingly advertised his company's charts to make its existence prevail among Japanese public. Thanks to his intensive promotional efforts on the multiple media including television programs, the hit parade became known by its abbreviation "Oricon" by the late 1970s.

The company shortened its name to Oricon in 1992 and was split into a holding company and several subsidiaries in 1999. Since Sōkō Koike's death, Oricon has been managed by the founder's relatives.

Policy

Oricon monitors and reports on sales of CDs, DVDs, video games, and entertainment content in several other formats; manga and book sales were also formerly covered. Charts are published every Tuesday in Oricon Style and on Oricon’s official website. Every Monday, Oricon receives data from outlets, but data on merchandise sold through certain channels does not make it into the charts. For example, the debut single of NEWS

NeWS

NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal...

, a pop group, was released only through 7-Eleven

7-Eleven

7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...

 stores, which are not covered by Oricon, and its sales were not reflected in the Oricon charts. Oricon’s rankings of record sales are therefore not completely accurate. Before data was collected electronically, the charts were compiled on the basis of faxes that were sent from record shops.

Controversy

In 2006, Oricon sued journalist Hiro Ugaya when he was quoted in a Cyzo magazine article suggesting that Oricon was fiddling its statistics to benefit certain management companies and labels.

Oricon does not include download sales. In Japan, Single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 sales decreased sharply in 2000s while download sales hit 3 or 4 times of Single sales.

Current charts

• Singles Chart (1968-01-04–)
• Albums Chart (1987-10-05–)
• Karaoke Chart (1987-12-26–)
• Tracks Chart (2004-06-06–)
• DVD Chart (1999-04-05–)
• Long Hit Album Catalogue Chart (2001-04-02–)

Past charts

• LP Chart (1970-01-05–1989-11-27)
• CT
  Compact Cassette
  The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
  
   Chart (1974-12-02–1989-11-27)
• MD
  MiniDisc
  The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
  
   Chart (Unknown)
• LD
  Laserdisc
  LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
  
   Chart (Unknown–2000-02-07)
• VHD Chart (Unknown–1989-11-27)
• Cartridges Chart (1974-12-02–1978-04-24)
• Sell-Video Chart (1974-02-06–2005-05-30)
• All-Genre Formats Ranking (1984-05-24–2001-04-02)
• Game Soft Chart (1995-02-20–2005-11-28)
• Comics Chart (1995-02-06–2001-03-26)
• New Media Chart (January 2004–2005)

Best Selling Singles Of All Time

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales
1	1975 1975 in music -January–April:*January 2 - New York City U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen rules that former Beatle John Lennon and his lawyers can have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case....	Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun is a song by Japanese singer Masato Shimon, released by Canyon Records on December 25, 1975. The B-side "Ippon Demo Ninjin" was sung by Japanese folk singer Kenichi Nagira. However, the label claimed that the song was a children's song because the song was used in Japanese child television program...	Masato Shimon Masato Shimon is a retired Japanese vocalist from Meguro, Tokyo. He is most known for his contributions to the theme songs of various anime and tokusatsu series. In his career, he has sung under the names and . "Masato Shimon" is also his recording name, as he was born with the name...	4.547m
2	1972 1972 in music -Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...	Onna no Michi Onna no Michi is the debut single by Shiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio released on May 10, 1972, in Japan. The lyrics are simple, but sad. The song is written about a woman who devoted herself to her only man but was deserted by him and was crying...	Shiro Miya Shiro Miya is a Japanese enka singer, lyricist and composer. His band Shiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio's 1972 song "Onna no Michi", became the second best-selling single in Japanese Oricon charts history, selling over 3.25 million copies.- Life and career :...  and Pinkara Trio	3.256m
3	2000 2000 in music See also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....	Tsunami Tsunami (Southern All Stars song) "Tsunami" is a song by the Southern All Stars, released as their forty-fourth single on January 26, 2000.-Overview:The song was the first number-one single for Southern All Stars since the 1996 single Ai no Kotodama on the Oricon weekly charts. The band used the style of hard rock on the previous...	Southern All Stars Southern All Stars , also known by the abbreviations or SAS, is a Japanese pop/rock band that formed in the mid 1970s.The band is composed of Keisuke Kuwata , Yuko Hara , Kazuyuki Sekiguchi , Hiroshi Matsuda and Hideyuki "Kegani" Nozawa...	2.934m
4	1999 1999 in music -Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....	Dango 3 Kyodai Dango 3 Kyodai is a Japanese song released on March 3, 1999. The song caused a social phenomenon in Japan. On the Japanese Oricon weekly single charts, it debuted at the number-one position with the sales of over one million copies. It was considered that the song might surpass the record of "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun"....	Kentarō Hayami, Ayumi Shigemori Ayumi Shigemori is a Japanese actress and pop star. She sang on the major J-pop hit "Dango 3 Kyodai".-External links:... , Himawari Kids, Dango Gasshōdan	2.918m
5	1992 1992 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1992.-January–February:*January 11**Nirvana's Nevermind album goes to #1 in the US Billboard 200 chart, establishing the widespread popularity of the Grunge movement of the 1990s....	Kimi ga Iru Dake de Kimi ga Iru Dake de Kimi ga Iru Dake de is a Japanese song by Kome Kome Club released on May 4, 1992. On the Japanese Oricon chart, it sold 924,780 copies in one week and debuted at the number-one position. It held the top rank in total of six weeks...	Kome Kome Club Kome Kome Club is a Japanese pop band formed in 1982. It is widely recognized as the only Japanese pop musical group which achieved commercial success by blending funk, soul and Latin musical styles. They also use the style of rakugo.-1982–1997: Commercial success:...	2.895m
6	1991 1991 in music See also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...	Say Yes Say Yes (Chage and Aska song) "Say Yes" is a Japanese single by Chage and Aska, released by Pony Canyon on July 24, 1991. The song was used as a theme of Japanese television drama 101 kaime no Propose. It was regarded as a wedding-song....	Chage & Aska Chage and Aska or Chage and Asuka are a Japanese popular music duo composed of two singer-songwriters from Fukuoka Prefecture, and . To date they have sold over 31 million albums and singles in Japan....	2.822m
7	1994 1994 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.-January–February:*January 25 – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so....	Tomorrow Never Knows Tomorrow Never Knows (Mr. Children song) "Tomorrow Never Knows" is the sixth single released by Mr. Children on November 10, 1994. The single sold 2.766 million copies and is the seventh highest-selling single in Japan in the Oricon history.-Overview:...	Mr. Children Mr. Children , commonly called , is a Japanese rock band formed in 1988 by Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki. As a group, they are one of the most successful Japanese rock artists, having sold over 50 million records and creating the in the mid 1990s in Japan...	2.766m
8	1991 1991 in music See also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...	Oh! Yeah!/Love Story wa Totsuzen ni	Kazumasa Oda Kazumasa Oda is a Japanese singer-songwriter, composer and is also known as the leader of the folk rock band Off Course.As a vocalist and leader of Off Course, Oda wrote many Japanese standard numbers in the 70s and 80s. He and Yasuhiro Suzuki were important composers in the band...	2.587m
9	2003 2003 in music -January:* January – following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested...	Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana	SMAP SMAP SMAP is a Japanese boy band formed by Johnny & Associates. While originally consisting of six members, the current group members are Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori...	2.573m
10	1995 1995 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.- January–February :*January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident....	Love Love Love/Arashi ga Kuru	Dreams Come True	2.488m

Best Selling Albums of All Time

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales
1	1999 1999 in music -Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....	First Love	Hikaru Utada	7,650,215
2	1998 1998 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...	B'z The Best "Pleasure"	B'z B'z is a Japanese hard rock duo, composed of and .B'z has released 45 consecutive #1 singles, 24 #1 albums, and sold more than 79 million records in Japan alone...	5,135,922
3	1997 1997 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1997.-January:*January 9 – David Bowie performs his 50th Birthday Bash concert at Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA with guests Frank Black, The Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure, Lou Reed, and Billy...	Review Review (album) Review is the first released greatest hits album from the Japanese rock band, Glay. It was released on October 10, 1997, and this album contains Glay's most popular singles and tracks from their 1994 album Hai to Diamond to their 1996 one Beloved...	Glay Glay (band) Glay is a rock/pop band from Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan formed by guitarist Takuro and vocalist Teru in high school in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also composed songs using elements of different styles such as reggae and gospel...	4,875,980
4	2001 2001 in music See also:* 2001 in music Record labels established in 2001-Events:*January 1**Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House of Blues**Hum disbands.*January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band....	Distance Distance (Hikaru Utada album) Distance is the second Japanese album released by Japanese-American J-pop singer Hikaru Utada, released on March 28, 2001 in direct "competition" with A Best by Ayumi Hamasaki ....	Hikaru Utada	4,469,135
5	1998 1998 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...	B'z The Best "Treasure"	B'z	4,438,742
6	2001 2001 in music See also:* 2001 in music Record labels established in 2001-Events:*January 1**Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House of Blues**Hum disbands.*January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band....	A Best A Best - International version :A Best was later re-released in other countries outside Japan, including Singapore, the Philippines and Korea. The international version did not have new vocal mixes and had a slightly different cover art to the standard Japanese version....	Ayumi Hamasaki Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, lyricist, and actress. Also called "Ayu" by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to...	4,301,353
7	1996 1996 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January – At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the fact...	Globe Globe (album) Globe is the first studio album released from Globe on March 31, 1996. The album sold over four million copies, becoming the best-selling album of Japan in Oricon charts history at that time.- Album information :...	Globe Globe (band) Globe is a dance-oriented Japanese pop band, formed in 1995 by producer and songwriter Tetsuya Komuro. Originally consisting of Komuro, Keiko Yamada and Marc Panther, the group's singles consistently hit the charts...	4,136,460
8	2002 2002 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2002.-Events:*February 3 – U2 perform during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVI...	Deep River	Hikaru Utada	3,604,588
9	2000 2000 in music See also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....	Delicious Way Delicious Way - Charts, certifications and succession :- Procession and succession :...	Mai Kuraki Mai Kuraki is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter and producer from Funabashi, Chiba. Kuraki debuted in 1999 with the single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow". In 2000, she released her debut album, Delicious Way, which debuted at number-one and sold over 2,210,000 copies in its first week...	3,530,000
10	1998 1998 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...	Time to Destination Time to Destination Time to Destination is the second full album of the Japanese pop group Every Little Thing, released on April 15, 1998. It is the best selling album from the band with 3,520,330 copies sold, also becoming the 10th best selling album of all time in Japan....	Every Little Thing	3,520,330

External links

• Oricon website