SixTONES’ new single “Mascara” soars to No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Aug. 9 to 15, with 504,232 CDs sold in its first week. The rising Johnny’s boy band asked King Gnu/millennium parade hitmaker Daiki Tsuneta to write the number, which hits No. 1 for sales, look-ups and Twitter mentions, while also performing well in video views (No. 4) and radio airplay (No. 2) to lead the latest chart by a wide margin.
“Mascara” also proved the group’s expanding popularity, outselling its two earlier singles also by far: first-week figures for the previous single was 436,911 copies, while the one before that was 459,986 copies.
YOASOBI’s new single “Love Letter” debuts at No. 4. The track was produced for a project hosted by a TOKYO FM radio program that called for letters to be submitted for the breakout duo to consider basing a new song on. The letter that was chosen from among the numerous submissions from around the country was written by a then-sixth-grader named Hatsunesan, who wrote about their gratitude toward music.
“Love Letter,” the song based on Hatsunesan’s letter, scored 31,392 first-week downloads to hit No. 1 for the metric, which fueled its launch at No. 4 on the chart. This song’s debut edged the duo’s “Sangenshoku” out to No. 11, but they still maintain three songs in the top 10, as do BTS (“Permission to Dance,” “Butter,” “Dynamite”).
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and karaoke data.
For the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, dated Aug. 9 to 15, see here.
