Idol group Morning Musume's latest single "Help me!!" (released on January 23rd) sold 93,000 copies in the first week, and topped Oricon's weekly single chart. This marked the first time for their single to top the charts in 3 years and 8 months since they last accomplished it with "Shouganai Yume Oibito" (released in May of 2009).

This has also become their 52nd single overall to rank in the TOP 10, thus they updated their own record for "the total number of singles ranked in the TOP 10."

"Help me!!" was their first single since 11th generation member Oda Sakura joined the group, and also the first No.1 single after Michishige Sayumi became their 8th leader. Michishige commented happily, "I am extremely happy that our first single in 2013 brought us this result! This is the first time topping the Oricon chart for our 9th, 10th and 11th generation members. I hope more people get to know about the current iteration of Morning Musume with this result."

This single also allowed Morning Musume to be the 3rd female artist to have topped the chart in each of the past 3 decades. They accomplished this in the 1990s (with "Daite HOLD ON ME!" & "LOVE Machine"), in 2000s (with "Happy Summer Wedding" & "I WISH"), and 2010s (with "Help me!!"). The only other 2 female artists to accomplish this are Nakajima Miyuki and Hamasaki Ayumi.

Source & Image: Oricon