After last year�s withdrawal of Yamashita Tomohisa (27) and Nishikido Ryo (27), newly formed group�NEWS restarted their activities with the single "Chankapana".

Sales of "Chankapana" started on July 18th and sold 245,000 copies in its first week, ranking first in Oricon's�7/30 singles ranking. "Chankapana"�sold 95,000 more copies in its first week than their previous single "Fighting Man", which was released before NEWS lost Yamashita and Nishikido. It is also the first time in 3 years for the group to�achieve over 200,000 in sales in the first week since "Koi no ABO"�(released in April 2009). This is indeed a good start for NEWS.

NEWS has been topping the singles ranking since its debut with single "Kibou~Yell~". Including its 5 top-ranking albums, NEWS has had 19 chart-topping works. In the top 3 places for most number of top-selling singles since debut are Kinki Kids (32 singles), KAT-TUN (18 singles) and NEWS (14 singles).

NEWS leader Koyama Keiichiro (28) was especially happy about their long-awaited new single ranking in first place. He addressed NEWS fans and commented, "'Chankapana' is a result of our feelings and the feelings of the fans who have been waiting for us. We achieved the best start. When I heard about the ranking, I cried. We will express our thanks through our activities. So 'let�s fall into beautiful love' with us!"

Koyama, Kato Shigeaki (25), Masuda Takahisa (26), and Tegoshi Yuya (24) started fresh as the newly-formed NEWS. They will kick off their nationwide tour �NEWS LIVE TOUR 2012�~Utsukushii Koi ni suruyo~� with a public performance at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium. It�s announced that the tour will be held at seven locations in Kobe, Fukuoka, Niigata, Sendai, Hiroshima and Sapporo.

Check out the PV for Chankapana below!



Source: Oricon