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Oricon
From Virtual Japan
Oricon is a company that provides a charts, information and support to music companies. Oricon is best known for its music charts, indicating the best selling CD’s, singles and other information about the Japanese music scene.
The name “Oricon” comes from a combination of the first three letters of both of the words in “Original Confidence.”
Company Information
Original Confidence Inc. was founded in 1967. They began creating charts in 1968 under the name Sōgō Geinō Shijō Chōsa (総合芸能市場調査, Sōgō Geinō Shijō Chōsa) which means “Surveys of Entertainment Markets.” The name of the company was shortened to “Oricon” by 1992, but it was not until 1999 that the company split into several other companies, while Oricon remained as those company’s holder. Oricon is run by president and CEO Hisashi Koike. The company has a capital of almost 8 billion yen per year, and makes approximately 6 billion yen in sales. It has 208 employees as of 2007. It is headquartered in Manato, Tokyo.
Though the new company was only 1 year old, it was listed on the Osaka securities exchange market in 2000. It also had a ringtone business that was placed under the name Direct Digital, Inc., which helped create a great deal of the company’s profits.
About Charts
Oricon releases a number of different charts in the music industry. They survey over 3,000 different retail outlets and review the data to create charts on most popular artists, most sold artists, etc. These charts play a bit role in the music industry.
One of their newest releases is a list of the artists that have had the longest consecutive streak of being on the first place list. It was released on March 31st, 2008, and the winners were the following:
- Yumi Matsutoya (18 consecutive years, 1981-1998)
- Utada Hikaru (10 consecutive years (1999 – Present)
- Ayumi Hamasaki (9 Years, 1999-2007)
- 4 tied with eight years (B’z, Akina Nakamori, Misato Watanabe, Seiko Matsuda)
Since 2004, all charts released by Oricon are released on the “Oricon Style” website.