AKB48 Heavy Rotation #1 Ranking

AKB48 Heavy Rotation entered the Oricon daily charts yesterday at #1 with sales of 340,487. #2 was AAA with 21,658. The daily sales for Heavy Rotation were below Ponytail’s day one totals by around 10,000.

It`s funny to see the AKB fan base being disappointed that the single “only” sold 340,000 copies on day one. Many had visions of opening sales of half a million. Less then 10% of all releases in Japan even sale 100,000 copies .AKB48 are accomplishing in a single day ,what top idols   in the 80`s accomplished with their releases , a time when idols dominated the music scene and top stars had sales of 500,000- 1,000,000 for regularly .

For example Nakamori Akina
Nakamori`s debut was in 1982, her debut entered Oricon at #30 and sold 174,000. Her second single was #5 at 396,000 her third single was at #2, but one week later was at #1 with sales of 766,000 .Her first two albums sold 453,000 and 743,000 copies respectively.

Some may even say that all of this is just luck, that it`s a defection of Morning Musume fans or it`s swimsuits, election voting, fan service, etc. If you fall into that trap, then you truly do not understand what is in play here.

Akimoto Yasushi a true legend in this industry for over 30 years created AKB48 . Akimoto has records for hit singles written for both female and male artists .He has created idol group television shows ,films ,dramas as far back as the 80`s .

He created one of the most important multi member idol groups in history. The 80`s idol group Onyanko Club, who were the biggest and the BEST! Of all the multi member units of that time. A group by the way that produced 12 major post group celebrities ,three sub units .They had a television show  that filmed episodes in various locations inside and outside Japan. A group that if you include ,soloists ,sub units and the main unit resulted in 40 #1 releases , and 100 top 10`s.

Nothing about today’s idols is original, everything was first done in the 70-80`s .So why is this working for one group and not another? The biggest reason is that ,AKB48 is nothing short of being the daughter so to speak of Onyanko Club, a group that had already accomplished and created many of the concepts that AKB48 put to use today years before the birth of AKB48.


AKB48 was set up to accomplish this from the day they were created, thanks to the past created by Akimoto Yasushi. The team that he has put in place ,that fact that members can sign with out side management for extra  non AKB48 related work  and a marketing plan that has 30 yrs of experience behind it.

  AKB48 are taking advantage of the lessons learned by Akimoto`s past with Onyanko Club and other groups that he created .As well as a deep pool of industry connections and respect, that Akimoto has established in his own career.


Yet even with their reasons for success clear to everyone  ,some anti fans still feel the need to sell their accomplishments short or call it some fan service trick.Which is far from the truth.

Simply put AKB48 is the Onyanko Club of today`s genre , a group that will influence and shape the industry for years to come.


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Download version of the PV ,

Heavy Rotation PV Download [HQ] 


If you live outside of Japan and wish to buy the single
Type A
Type B

UPDATE Aug 19
AKB48 Day 2 sales was 68,439  #2 was Acid Black Cherry w/ 11,439  #3 AAA W/10,855

2 day totals  AKB48  408,926