Arirang TV on 김현중 Kim Hyun Joong Rare for Korean stars to hit #1 on the Oricon without promotional activities

Kim Hyun Joong's remarkable capture of the hearts of Japanese fans - boosted no less by the high popularity of his Playful Kiss / Mischievous Kiss drama there - has kept him in the top spots of Japan's e-circle. 

Not only did his album sales (foreign/imported album category) beat Lady Gaga + Beyonce in the Japanese Oricon charts, he was also the highest-selling solo artist of the year in Korean's Hanteo* charts for the first half of 2011 (counted sales from Jan 1st to July 18th) - where he came in at #3 ~ an INCREDIBLE feat since his album was just released just about a month before the final tally, on June 8!

*5-member Big Bang came in 1st place with higher sales for 56 albums**/singles released since 2006; DBSK sits on the 2nd spot from sales of 130 albums/singles. KHJ is at 3rd place with 3 albums/singles (primary contributor is his 1st debut solo BD album, which broke the 100,000 sales figure just two weeks after its release)
** The ranking for each artist is based on the album sales records saved by Hanteo. The ranking counts ALL of the albums/singles released by each artist throughout their career, but only counts the sales those albums made in the tally period (Jan 1st-July 18th) of 2011.

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