Most consecutive decades with a No.1 on the Japanese albums chart

The most consecutive decades with a No.1 on the Japanese albums chart is 6, and was achieved by Yumi Matsutoya (Japan) on 17 October 2022.

Yumi Matsutoya (Japan) has had at least one chart-topper on the Oricon Albums Chart for six consecutive decades (1970s–2020s). Nicknamed “Yuming”, the Tokyo-born singer-songwriter scored her first No.1 with the compilation Yuming Brand (1976). Later that year, The 14th Moon (1976) became her first No.1 studio album.

Matsutoya achieved 17 consecutive No.1 studio releases from Sakuban Oaishimashō in 1981 to Cowgirl Dreamin’ in 1997, and continued her success into the 21st century with the compilation albums Sweet, Bittersweet (2001) and The Best of Yumi Matsutoya - 40th Anniversary (2012). Her most recent studio album to reach No.1 was Uchū Toshokan (2016). Matsutoya extended her chart-topping run to a sixth decade when Yuming Banzai! - 50th Anniversary Best Album landed at the top on the Oricon Albums Chart dated 17 October 2022.

Including studio, compilation and live albums combined, Yumi Matsutoya – known as Yumi Arai before her marriage to her musical collaborator, producer/arranger Masataka Matsutoya, in 1976 – has reached the No.1 spot on the Oricon Albums Chart 26 times between 1976 and 2022.

Her tally of chart-toppers includes The Gates of Heaven (1990), the first album to be certified for sales of two million copies by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). Matsutoya, aged 68 at the time of her 2022 best-seller, had at least one No.1 album in Japan for 15 consecutive years, from Sakuban Oaishimashō (1981) to Kathmandu (1995).