AKB48 released their new single, “Kuchibiru ni Be My Baby” on December 9. The single sold 813,044 copies on the first day, taking the daily #1 chart . At the same time, AKB48 also managed to become the best selling singles act in Japanese history. Their total sales for singles now stands at 36,158,000 copies.
The mastermind of AKB48, Yasushi Akimoto, also has a personal reason to celebrate. With the first day sales of “Kuchibiru ni Be My Baby”, he is now the first lyricist in Japanese history to crack the 100 million single sales mark. Since his debut as a songwriter in 1981, the sales of singles he has written for various acts over his career now stands at 100,226,000. Yasushi also has the most weeks at #1 on the singles chart for a songwriter, with 129. The most recent is HKT48’s “Shekarashika!”, which was released last month. Yasushi’s best selling singles acts are AKB48 (36,158,000), SKE48 (7,840,000), Nogizaka46 (5,968,000), NMB48 (5,614,000), and Tunnels (5,476,000).
AKB48 is now the best selling singles act in Japan history, but they have quite a long way to go to be the best selling Japanese act ever. B’z still holds that title with over 80 million records sold. AKB48’s total record sales currently stands at about half that number.
[AKB48 | Super Hit Songs Medley]
