Ten years ago, Namie Amuro's star appeared to be fading fast. The pop singer's massive popularity in the 1990s helped cement the rise of sleek J-pop, but by 2005, sales of her albums and singles were starting to come back to Earth. Worse still, the former "Queen of J-pop" was seemingly being lapped by rival singers Ayumi Hamasaki and Kumi Koda.
But 2015 saw Amuro solidify — once again — her position as the country's premier female pop star. This endpoint has been on the horizon for a few years, but the past 12 months saw her finalize it via the Oricon chart-topping "_genic," which was released in June. While she continued a late-career resurgence, she could also enjoy a degree of schadenfreude in seeing her closest rivals slip up massively over the past year.
Looking purely at sales, Amuro's 12th full-length collection wasn't a blockbuster. "_genic" has moved a touch more than 240,000 units as of writing, a dizzying number for most pop acts in 2015, but a number on the lower end in her history. She's nowhere near this year's monster releases from the likes of Arashi and Dreams Come True, yet as overall music sales in Japan keep dropping every year, the figures for "_genic"look solid.