Oricon

Oricon Inc. stands as the central hub for industry intelligence in Japan, aggregating data from nearly 40,000 retail outlets to generate weekly rankings for CDs, DVDs, video games, and light novels. The company traces its lineage back to November 1967 when founder Sōkō Koike launched Original Confidence, an organization dedicated to compiling reliable music chart data. By April 2002, the corporate structure formalized as Oricon Inc., absorbing the original parent company's flagship record charts to solidify its position.

In December 2018, the brand significantly modernized its methodology by launching the Combined Chart, a metric that synthesizes physical sales, digital downloads, and streaming numbers into a single figure. This shift reflected changing consumer habits while maintaining their reputation for objectivity and fairness. Beyond traditional music, Oricon News now covers K-pop, J-pop, anime, manga, dramas, and films through a global English portal at us.oricon-group.com. [edit]