Popular duo Kobukuro�s comeback album, �ALL SINGLES BEST 2� (released for sale on September 5), made a chart-topping first place debut with sales of 395,000 copies in their first week of sales for the September 17th Oricon Weekly Album Ranking Chart.� In August of last year, Kobuchi Kentaro (35) stopped his activities in Kobukuro to seek medical treatment for his vocal cords. �This marks their first top placement in two years for a single or album.

This is Kobukuro�s 6th consecutive first-place album win of 6 albums.� This is also the first time in nearly 5 years for the duo to sell over 300,000 copies in the first week since the album �5296� (391,000 copies sold in first week of sales, 1,428,000 copies sold overall, released in December 2007) was released 4 years and 9 months ago.

On the same day, their first �best-of� album �ALL SINGLES BEST� released 6 years ago (in September 2006, sold 3,044,000 copies overall) also jumped in rank from last week�s placement of 161 to 39 and entered into the TOP 50 once again after 4 years and 4 months. �Including all the albums and singles ranking in the charts including their indie days, their total sales have reached 10,209,000 copies for their 21 singles and 12 albums and have broken the threshold of 10,000,000 copies sold.

Their current album is a continuation of their mega hit album �ALL SINGLES BEST.�� The album has a total of 21 songs including their songs �Tsubomi,� and �Ryuusei,� which were released in 2007, their hit song �WINDING ROAD,� which was a collaboration with Ayaka, and �Taiyou no Melody,� which was a collaboration between Imai Miki and Kobuchi Kentaro with Hotei Tomoyasu and Kuroda Shunsuke.

Source and Image: Oricon via Yahoo Japan News