Described in its choice for the year's yokozuna (grand champion) as dasa-kakoyosa — something that's behind the times, but cool nonetheless — entertainer Namie Amuro appeared at the top of the Nikkei Marketing Journal's 48th annual Hitto Shohin Banzuke (ranking of hit products) on Dec. 5.
The Okinawa-born pop diva of the Heisei Era, whose music career began in 1992, attracted 800,000 fans to her series of nationwide concerts in the run-up to her retirement in September. She also sold 2.41 million copies of her albums.
The Nikkei Marketing Journal is credited with coining the term "hitto shohin" ("hit product") as a promotional move after the thrice-weekly newspaper covering retailing and distribution was launched in 1971, when its management came up with the novel idea of ranking the year's most popular products and services using a stylized list of sumo wrestler rankings, called a banzuke, to publicize the year's bestsellers.