[1][2] Sources that provide the sales an artist or record company claim via press release, rather than certified or reported by reliable third parties such as Oricon, are denoted by a "†".
In addition, it excludes recording artists like Michiya Mihashi,[4] Hibari Misora, Yujiro Ishihara, and Hachiro Kasuga who had garnered most of commercial success before Oricon was established in the late 1960s.
[45] A selected group of Western acts have achieved certified units of over 4 million since Japan's music certification system inception by RIAJ in 1989.
Various of them debuted before that tracking system, selling millions of their catalogue along with thousand of copies for individual titles alone; ranging from Madonna to Michael Jackson according to Oricon's chart book figures.
[46] By other estimates, Western acts like the 1970s band, The Nolans have claimed sales of 12 million in the country during their height of career,[47] while according to Jeff Rovin in Julio!