AKB48's 23rd single, "Kaze wa Fuiteiru", claimed the first spot on the Oricon weekly chart by selling a whopping 1,300,000 copies!

With this achievement, the idol group managed to be on the top of the weekly chart for the tenth consecutive time, setting a record for girl groups in Japan. The previous record was nine consecutive first places, which was set by Pink Lady between 1976 and 1978. For almost 33 years, no other girl group ever managed to have a longer streak.

"Kaze wa Fuiteiru" has become the third most successful first week seller after "Flying Get" (1,354,000) and "Everyday, Kachuusha" (1,334,000), which are both songs from AKB48 as well. Therefore the group now completely took over the top three for best first week sellers. The fourth and fifth place are defended by Mr.Children ("Na Mo Naki Uta" - 1,208,000) and Utada Hikaru ("Addicted To You" - 1,068,000) respectively. AKB48 also became the first artist ever to achieve three million sellers in a row.

Adding up all of AKB48's sold copies of their singles since their debut, they've sold a total of 10,034,000 copies. This makes them the fourth girl group after Pink Lady, SPEED, and Morning Musume to break through the 10 million mark in the history of Oricon.

This song is dedicated to the victims of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and a part of the revenue will be donated to the affected regions.

Source: listen.jp, Oricon