The Hot Albums was launched on the week dated June 4, 2015, with Superfly's White (2015) as the inaugural number one.
[1][2] Since December 2024, the chart has been based on physical sales, digital downloads, and streaming; the look-up factor was removed after Billboard Japan became unable to collect such data from the provider since October 2022.
[3] Physical sales units are provided by SoundScan Japan, whereas GfK Japan tracks digital downloads from Amazon, iTunes, Mora, Mu-mo, and RecoChoku, with additional iTunes data courtesy of Luminate,[4] and streaming from Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify, etc.
Hikaru Utada, who has topped the chart 11 times, holds the record for solo artists.
Back Number's Encore (2016) has the most total chart weeks with 319; Kenshi Yonezu with Yankee (2014), Dreams Come True with their aforementioned album, Yumi Matsutoya with Nihon no Koi to, Yuming to (2012), and Southern All Stars with Umi no Yeah!!