Onyanko Club
Onyanko Club was a large all-girl Japanese pop idol group in the 1980s. Some members of the group participated in spin-off groups, such as Nyangilas, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi and Ushirogami Hikaretai. Many of the latter two groups' songs were used as theme songs of the popular 1980s anime series High School! Kimengumi and Tsuide ni Tonchinkan. Several big-name idols stemmed from the group; one of the best known being Shizuka Kudo. The group was produced by Hiroshi Ishida and Kazuji Kasai, both of whom were producers of Fuji TV's show ''Yūyake Nyan Nyan.''
History
1985
The group made its television debut on the first episode of Fuji TV's daily live television variety show "Sunset Meow Meow" on 1 April 1985. The show was aired from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. In the beginning, the group consisted of nine high school girls and two high school graduates, namely Sayuri Kokushō and Satomi Fukunaga. They were selected from participants in two special episodes of Fuji TV's weekly late-night show All Night Fuji. The two episodes entitled All Night Fuji: High School Girl Special were produced as pilots of the show Yūyake Nyan Nyan and aired on 23 February and 16 March 1985. Yūyake Nyan Nyan had a segment where five candidates participated in a five-day long audition for becoming a new Onyanko Club member. Most of the Onyanko Club members except the first 11 members and other members who joined the group through the 1986 Miss Seventeen Contest were admitted to the group by winning the audition.Every day since 15 April 1985, Tsurutarō Kataoka, a host of the program, had been provoking Dump Matsumoto, a female professional wrestler who is well known as a heel, by abusing her over the phone. On 19 April, while he was provoking her as usual, Matsumoto suddenly burst into the studio with a Shinai in her hand. Kataoka fled around the studio, then timidly repeated his apology to her. Seeing this, Onyanko Club members Sayuri Kokushō, Mika Nagoya, Satomi Fukunaga, and Sonoko Kawai broke into tears. This happening is considered one of the highlights of the program.
Smoking scandal and single releases
Less than three weeks from the launch of the show, six members were caught in photos taken by a photographer of tabloid magazine Shūkan Bunshun while they were hanging out and smoking in a kissaten near Fuji TV's old headquarters in Shinjuku, Tokyo. They stopped appearing on the show from 18 April. Eventually, five of them were officially dismissed from the group without announcement as a result of underage smoking as of 25 April; one member was not smoking in the incident.The group's debut single "Sailor Fuku o Nugasanai de" was premiered on Yūyake Nyan Nyan on 3 June. Lead vocalists for the single were Eri Nitta, Miharu Nakajima, Satomi Fukunaga and Kazuko Utsumi. Released by Canyon Records on 5 July, the single debuted at number 34 on the Oricon's Japanese single chart and peaked at number five in its sixth week of release in August. A day before the single's release date, a release and handshake event was scheduled at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The event was expected to have an attendance of about 500 people. However, over 4,000 people showed up at the site. As a result of reported injury and concerns over possible stampede, the event was canceled at the last minute before a scheduled start time.
In the same month, the group's member Sonoko Kawai made her appearance as a supporting character in the episodes 11 and 12 of Fuji TV's live-action TV series Sukeban Deka. Subsequently, it was announced on Yūyake Nyan Nyan that Kawai's first solo single would be released in September. The single "Namida no Jasmine LOVE" and its B-side "Koi no Chapter A to Z" were premiered on Yūyake Nyan Nyan on 12 August and 19 August, respectively. The B-side features four Onyanko Club members as backing vocals: Sayuri Kokusho, Mika Nagoya, Mamiko Takai and Sanae Jōnouchi. In late August, producers of the show Yūyake Nyan Nyan teamed up with producers of the live-action TV series Sukeban Deka and held a special audition on Yūyake Nyan Nyan to look for a new Onyanko Club member who would play a main character in a sequel to the TV series. The winner of the audition was Akie Yoshizawa, who was assigned number 25. A day before the release of Kawai's first single, a release event entitled "Nyan Touch Love Party" for the single was held at Yomiuri Land EAST in Inagi, Tokyo on 31 August.
Released by CBS/Sony Records on 1 September, Kawai's first single debuted at number five on the chart and topped the chart for the following two consecutive weeks. On 21 September, the group's first studio album Kick Off was released by Canyon Records. The album was directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and contained 10 songs whose music was composed by several musicians, such as Jun Sato, Ken Takahashi, Etsuko Yamakawa, Kiyonori Matsuo and Tsugutoshi Goto, who all composed and arranged most of the group's and members' songs thereafter. All lyrics of the album were written by Yasushi Akimoto. The album reached number two on the Oricon's Japanese album chart and remained in the top 100 for 30 weeks. On 30 September, the group's first subgroup Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi made its television debut on Yūyake Nyan Nyan. Its members were Mamiko Takai and Yukiko Iwai.
The official fan club "Konyanko Club" run by Fujipacific Music was launched on 1 October. The number of fan club members peaked at about 190,000 during its operation. On 5 October, Onyanko Club had its first concert entitled "Kick Off" at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was recorded and released as a video by Pony Inc. in the following month.
On the same day as the first concert, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi's first single "Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi" was released by Canyon Records. The single and its B-side were used as the opening theme and ending theme, respectively, of Fuji TV's anime High School! Kimengumi, which was adaptation from the manga series. One of the reasons why Takai and Iwai were selected for the subgroup was that their images matched the anime's two girl characters named Kawa Yui and Uru Chie. Originally the subgroup was named "Kiwi-Gumi". 30,000 copies of the first single's front cover insert were printed with the name before Kazuji Kasai, a producer of Yūyake Nyan Nyan, decided to change it to Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi, which was part of the song's lyrics written by Akimoto. The first single peaked at number five on the Japanese single chart. On 21 October, Onyanko Club's second single "Oyoshi ni Natte ne Teacher" was released by Canyon Records. It debuted at number two on the single chart.
On 1 November, Yoshizawa's first solo single "Naze? no Arashi" was released by For Life Records under the name of "Yoshizawa Akie with Onyanko Club". Four Onyanko Club members Aki Kihara, Mika Nagoya, Harumi Tomikawa and Ruriko Nagata were selected as backing vocals for the single. Although their backing vocals actually were not recorded in the single, the members were pictured on the back cover of the 7-inch single and always performed with Yoshizawa on Yūyake Nyan Nyan and in the single release events as well as Onyanko Club's concerts. The song was used as the ending theme of Fuji TV's live-action TV series Sukeban Deka II: Shōjo Tekkamen Densetsu for the episodes 1 to 15. Yoshizawa played one of the three main characters of the TV series aired from 7 November 1985, to 23 October 1986. The single peaked at number eight on the single chart.
In November, producers of Yūyake Nyan Nyan teamed up with producers of Nippon Broadcasting System's radio show Miyake Yuuji no Yangu Paradaisu and held a special audition on Yūyake Nyan Nyan to look for new Onyanko Club members who would be campaign girls for the radio show. The winner of the audition was Mutsumi Yokota, who was assigned number 28. Minayo Watanabe, Chiaki Mikami and Yuko Yajima, who all were runners-up of the audition, also became Onyanko Club members and were assigned numbers 29, 30 and 31, respectively. Note that in November, the program was only aired for about 10 days due to the broadcast of 1985 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup and 1985 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup.
In the fall and winter of 1985, Kawai expanded her solo activities with her second single "Ochiba no Crescendo" released on 21 November and her first solo album Sonoko released on 5 December both by CBS/Sony Records. She also started appearing as a supporting character in Fuji TV's drama TV series The Mirror of Janus, which was adaptation from the manga series, aired from 4 December 1985, to 16 April 1986, and had her first solo concert at Gold Hall at Shinagawa Prince Hotel in Shinagawa, Tokyo on 28 December. The concert was recorded and released as a video by CBS/Sony Home Video in March 1986.
1986
Premiered on Yūyake Nyan Nyan on 16 December 1985, and released by Canyon Records on 1 January 1986, Onyanko Club member number 4 Eri Nitta's first solo single "Fuyu no Operagrasu" debuted at number one on the single chart and remained number one for the four consecutive weeks. The number of its sales exceeded that of any of Onyanko Club-related singles released earlier. On 21 January, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi's second single "Banana no Namida" was released by Canyon Records. It debuted at number one on the single chart and was used as the ending theme of Fuji TV's anime High School! Kimengumi. In the same month, Onyanko Club member number 8 Sayuri Kokusho started performing her first solo single "Valentine Kiss" on Yūyake Nyan Nyan. Two Onyanko Club members Mako Shiraishi and Minayo Watanabe were selected as backing vocals for the single. Released by CBS/Sony Records under the name of "Kokusho Sayuri with Onyanko Club" on 1 February, the single debuted at number two on the single chart.In February, it was announced on Yūyake Nyan Nyan that the group's two members Miharu Nakajima and Sonoko Kawai would "graduate" from the group in April. Nakajima, who was graduating from high school in March, decided to retire from the music and entertainment industry and go to college to become a dental hygienist, while Kawai would move on to pursue her solo career as a singer and later a singer-songwriter. The Japanese word "sotsugyou" was used by the group for the first time in the Japanese pop music industry to describe departure of members from an idol group or a band. The reason for the use of the Japanese word was that the group and its activities were revolving around a concept that it was a student club that engaged in show business activities as extracurricular activities.
As one of the rules for Onyanko Club members was that they had to attend high school and maintain good grades to be able to remain in the group. There were members who were dismissed from the group by producers of Yūyake Nyan Nyan in violation of the rule by quitting school. Members also had to take their time off from appearing on the daily TV show and participating in other activities of the group during their respective schools' midterm exams and final exams as well as during times for exam preparation. Moreover, having to give priority to their studies over the group's show business activities resulted in significant restrictions on several member's activities. For example, Mutsumi Yokota had to refrain from appearing on the daily TV show since winning the aforementioned audition until she graduated from her high school in March 1986 as a result of the school's restrictions on her show business activities. For the same reason, Harumi Tomikawa also was not allowed to appear on the TV show from January to May 1986 even though she was able to participate in the group's certain activities, such as photo shoots, recording sessions and concert performances.
Onyanko Club's third single "Jā ne" was released by Canyon Records on 21 February. It was named after Japanese word "jā ne ", which is a casual way of saying "goodbye", and was a farewell song to Nakajima, who was leaving the group in April. Moreover, it was originally planned to be released under the name of "Nakajima Miharu with Onyanko Club" as her first and last solo single. However, Nakajima suggested releasing it as the group's third single. It debuted at number one on the single chart. On 1 March, Yoshizawa's second single "Kisetsu Hazure no Koi" was released by For Life Records. It topped the single chart for two consecutive weeks. The B-side of the single is "Kaiin Bangou no Uta", which literally means "The Song of Membership Numbers". It was performed by and recorded with all 22 remaining members of Onyanko Club at that time. The song is credited to Onyanko Club and consists of four choruses and 22 verses, each verse sung by each member individually about herself for approximately 14 seconds. The music of the song was composed by Akira Mitake, who composed many of the group's and members' songs. The lyrics of the song was written by Akimoto. On 10 March, the group's second studio album Yume Catalogue was released by Canyon Records. It topped the Oricon's Japanese album chart. The second album features songs sung by various combinations of members, some of whom had solo vocal parts for the first time in the group's recordings, such as "Suki ni Nattemo Kurenai" sung by Aki Kihara, Mika Nagoya and Rika Tatsumi and "Ren'ai Omimai Moushiagemasu" sung by Harumi Tomikawa, Sanae Jounouchi and Ruriko Nagata.
The group's first nationwide concert tour began at Hokkaido Kosei Nenkin Kaikan in Sapporo, Hokkaido on 16 March. Subsequently they performed in Hiroshima, Nagoya, Sendai, Osaka and Tokyo and had 14 shows in total with a total of 96,673 attendees in the whole tour. Tickets of the first concert tour didn't get to general sale as they were sold out to fan club "Konyanko Club" members only. On 21 March, Kawai's third single "Aoi Stashion" was released by CBS/Sony Records. It topped the single chart for two consecutive weeks and eventually became the most successful single out of all of the group's and member's singles released while the group was active. On Yūyake Nyan Nyan aired on 31 March, a "graduation ceremony" for Nakajima and Kawai was held, which was recorded earlier as on the same day the group was having two shows a day at Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda, Tokyo as part of the nationwide concert tour. On 1 April, which was the final date of the tour, Nakajima and Kawai concluded their activities as Onyanko Club members with three shows a day at Nippon Budokan. The concert at Nippon Budokan was recorded and aired on Fuji TV on 5 April as well as released as a video by Pony Inc. in May 1986.
On the same day as the final date of the concert tour, Nyangilas' first single "Watashi wa Rika-chan" was released by Warner-Pioneer. The subgroup's members were Aki Kihara, Mika Nagoya, Rika Tatsumi and Mako Shiraishi. Prior to the subgroup formation, there was a segment on Yūyake Nyan Nyan aired in November 1985 where the show's hosts and panelists had a debate over whether Kihara, Nagoya and Tatsumi should form a subgroup and have their own songs for release. Although the three members were up for the idea, at that time it was generally perceived that they were not good singers or exceptionally popular members compared to other members, such as Sonoko Kawai and Eri Nitta. At the same time they were perceived as more humorous and cheerful than other members. Among the panelists, Yasushi Akimoto, who later wrote lyrics of all of Nyangilas' songs including its album songs, supported the idea, and eventually producers of Yūyake Nyan Nyan decided to make it happen with Shiraishi added, who they thought would make the subgroup more appealing to wider audiences. The first single was released on April Fools' Day, which was intended as a joke, and went straight to number one on the single chart, keeping popular Japanese boy band Shonentai's much anticipated second single off from the number-one spot. Tatsumi later said that as both singles were released by the same record label, the boy band's A&R executive got mad at her and her bandmates, saying that the boy band was supposed to get the number-one spot.
Nitta's second single "Koi no Rope wo Hodokanaide" was released by Canyon Records on 10 April. Originally its B-side "Pink no Ribbon" was decided to be a A-side. However, Nitta objected to it, and as a result Tsugutoshi Goto, who was the composer and arranger of both songs, had to revise "Koi no Rope wo Hodokanaide" for making it suitable for the A-side. It topped the single chart for two consecutive weeks. On 21 April, Onyanko Club's fourth single "Otto Chikan!" was released by Canyon Records. Front vocals for the single were Satomi Fukunaga, Kazuko Utsumi, Sanae Jounouchi, Ruriko Nagata and Mutsumi Yokota. It topped the single chart.
Fuji TV's weekly live television variety show Yūshoku Nyan Nyan starring the group and featuring presenters, one of whom was Kawai, was launched on 2 May. It was aired from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. every Friday and was very similar to Yūyake Nyan Nyan in their contents except that the weekly show was intended to promote Musukko Club, which was an all-boy idol group and intended as a boy version of Onyanko Club. The weekly show was short-lived and lasted until 19 September. In the same month, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi's third single "Zousan no Sukyantee" and Kokusho's second single "Natsu wo Matenai" were released by Canyon Records and CBS/Sony Records, respectively. Both singles topped the single chart.
Satomi Fukunaga's first solo single "Kaze no Invitation" was released by Canyon Records on 21 May. Prior to her performance of the song for promotion on Yūyake Nyan Nyan since the mid-May, it had already been premiered two months earlier during the group's first nationwide tour in March. On 25 May, a release event entitled "Satomi Invitation" for the single was held at Yomiuri Land EAST with a total of about 6,500 attendees, 1,500 of whom were lining up overnight for entry. The single debuted at number one on the single chart.
Onyanko Club member number 17 Sanae Jounouchi's first solo single "Ajisai Bashi" was released by CBS/Sony Records on 11 June. The single was categorized as enka, which is a Japanese music genre and considered as traditional Japanese popular music as opposed to other music genres influenced by Western pop and rock music. It debuted at number one on the Oricon's Japanese single chart. It was the first instance in the chart's history that a single in the category of enka went straight to number one on the single chart in the first week of release. As of 2023 the single remains as the only debut single in the category of enka that debuted at number one on the single chart.
Nyangilas' second single "Jibun de Yuunomo Nandesukeredo" was released by Warner-Pioneer on 21 June. It went straight to number one on the single chart, making all of Nyangilas' singles number-one singles. On 25 June, Mamiko Takai's first solo single "Cinderella-tachi e no Dengon" was released by Canyon Records while she still was the member of Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi. It debuted at number one on the single chart.
Onyanko Club member number 29 Minayo Watanabe's first solo single "Hitomi ni Yakusoku" was premiered on Yūyake Nyan Nyan on 2 July. A release event entitled "The First and Last Touch in Budokan" for the single was held at Nippon Budokan with a total of about 12,000 attendees on 5 July. On 10 July, Onyanko Club's third album Panic the World was released as a double album by Canyon Records. It consists of the original studio album with 10 newly released songs and a greatest hits compilation album with 11 songs previously released by Canyon Records, CBS/Sony Records, For Life Records and Warner-Pioneer. The double album reached number three on the Oricon's album chart. Meanwhile, Watanabe's first single was released by CBS/Sony Records on 16 July and debuted at number one on the single chart.
The group's second nationwide concert tour entitled "Onyanko Panic" began at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, Kanagawa on 19 July. In the stadium concert, the group announced on stage that five members Eri Nitta, Mika Nagoya, Satomi Fukunaga, Akie Yoshizawa and Kumiko Susan Yamamoto would "graduate" from the group in September. Nitta, Nagoya, Fukunaga and Yoshizawa would move on to pursue their solo careers as a singer and/or actress while Yamamoto decided to retire from the music and entertainment industry and finish college. On 21 and 22 July, the group had more stadium concerts at Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo. For the second tour, they subsequently performed in Hiroshima, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Fukuoka, Niigata, Fukui, Nagano, Sendai and Sapporo in August and in Tokyo in September. On 21 July, Onyanko Club's fifth single "Osaki ni Shitsurei" was released by Canyon Records. Front vocals for the single were Harumi Tomikawa, Yukiko Iwai, Tomoko Fukawa and Marina Watanabe. The single went straight to number one on the single chart.
Onyanko Club's movie Onyanko the Movie: Kiki Ippatsu! starring all members as the group was released in theaters nationwide by Toho Pictures on 23 August. It was directed by Masato Harada and played as a double feature with film Sorobanzuku starring Japanese comedy duo Tunnels, who also was a regular on Yūyake Nyan Nyan. The group's film includes scenes from the concert at Yokohama Stadium, rehearsals and backstage.
In partnership with the show Yūyake Nyan Nyan, teen magazine Seventeen ran its annual idol/model audition entitled "1986 Miss Seventeen with Onyanko" in August. The winner of the audition was Noriko Kaise, who was assigned number 41. Makiko Saito, Toshie Moriya and Naoko Takada, who all were runners-up of the audition, also became Onyanko Club members and were assigned numbers 42, 43 and 44, respectively. They made their television debut on the show on 29 September.
Fukunaga's second solo single "Heart no Ignition" was premiered on the weekly show Yūshoku Nyan Nyan on 12 September. The song was used as the ending theme of Fuji TV's live-action TV series Sukeban Deka III: Shōjo Ninpō-chō Denki for the episodes 1 to 8. Fukunaga played a supporting character in the episodes 1 to 20 of the TV series, which had a total of 42 episodes aired from 30 October 1986, to 29 October 1987. Released by Canyon Records on 1 October 1986, the single peaked at number two on the single chart.
On Yūyake Nyan Nyan aired on 26 September, a "graduation ceremony" for Nitta, Nagoya, Fukunaga, Yoshizawa and Yamamoto was held. It was recorded earlier as on the same day the group was having concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo as part of the second nationwide concert tour. On 25 and 26 September, which were the final dates of the tour, Nitta, Nagoya, Fukunaga, Yoshizawa and Yamamoto concluded their activities as Onyanko Club members with the group's concerts at Nippon Budokan. Also, the subgroup Nyangilas disbanded as a result of Nagoya's departure from Onyanko Club. The concert on 26 September was recorded and aired on Fuji TV on 3 November as well as released as a DVD in October 2003 by Pony Canyon.
In September, Onyanko Club B-Gumi, which was a junior version of Onyanko Club and consisted of junior high school girls, was formed. "B-Gumi" means "class B". The members were Mitsuko Yoshimi, Miyuki Sugiura, Kumiko Miyano and Hiroko Tominaga, all of whom were runners-up of the audition "1986 Miss Seventeen with Onyanko" held in August, as well as Mayumi Yamazaki, who won a weekly audition on the TV show Yūyake Nyan Nyan on 25 September. The group made its television debut on the show on 29 September.
Onyanko Club member number 36 Marina Watanabe's first solo single "Shinkokyu-shite" was released by Epic/Sony Records under the name of "Watanabe Marina with Onyanko Club" on 8 October. Two Onyanko Club members Shizuka Kudo and Akiko Ikuina were selected as backing vocals for the single. It debuted at number one on the Oricon's Japanese single chart. In the chart's history at that time, she became the youngest female singer at her age of 15 years and 11 months who had a debut single that went straight to number one on the single chart in the first week of release. This record was not broken for 14 years and five months.
Onyanko Club's sixth single "Koi wa Kuesuchon" was released by Canyon Records on 1 November. Front vocals for the single were Yukiko Iwai, Ruriko Nagata, Mako Shiraishi and Akiko Ikuina. The single and its B-side were used as the opening theme and ending theme, respectively, of Fuji TV's anime Anmitsu Hime aired from 5 October 1986, to 27 September 1987. The single topped the single chart.
Onyanko Club member number 13 Kazuko Utsumi's first solo single "Aoi Memories" was released by Canyon Records on 7 November. The single and its B-side were used as part of the soundtrack to Fuji TV's anime Touch, which was adaptation from the manga series. The single debuted at number three on the single chart. Prior to joining Onyanko Club, Utsumi used to be a child actress in the 70s and early 1980s and made many one-off appearances on TV drama series and live-action series, such as Kamen Rider Super-1 and Chojin Barom-1 to name few. She also attended a music school established by Masaaki Hirao, who was a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and music producer in the Japanese pop music industry, and took vocal lessons in the pre-Onyanko Club years. It was one of the reasons why she had many lead vocal parts in the group's earlier recordings.
Compilation album Merry X'mas for You was released by CBS/Sony records on 5 December. It contains six songs and consists of newly released song "Merry X'mas for You" sung together by CBS/Sony Records artists Sonoko Kawai, Sayuri Kokusho, Sanae Jounouchi and Minayo Watanabe as well as Epic/Sony Records artist Marina Watanabe, and five previously released songs, each sung individually by them. The album reached number three on the Oricon's Japanese album chart. In the meantime, television advertisements featuring Onyanko Club member number 40 Akiko Ikuina for Japanese convenience store Lawson's chicken nugget product "Karaage Kun" were premiered on-air on 8 December. In the advertisements, song "Heart ni Bokin wo" was used. At that time, it was generally expected by fans that the song would be released as Ikuina's debut solo single because her name was credited as the singer for the song in the ad and also because the version used in the ad was sung by Ikuina only. However, it later ended up being re-recorded/re-produced as the group's song and released as one of the eleven songs on Onyanko Club's fourth studio album Side Line in early 1987.
As part of her first solo concert tour entitled "E-AREA", Nitta had a concert at Nippon Budokan on 18 December. A concert at Nakano Sun Plaza in Nakao, Tokyo on 3 November for the concert tour was recorded and released as a video by Pony Inc. in January 1987. Kokusho also had a concert at Ryougoku Kokugikan in Sumida, Tokyo on 24 December as the final show of her first solo concert tour entitled "Dash Kokusho!" It was recorded and released as a video by CBS/Sony Home Video in April 1987.
On Yūyake Nyan Nyan aired on 25 December, a "graduation ceremony" for Mami Yumioka, Takako Okamoto and Maki Takabatake was held. All the three members decided to retire from the music and entertainment industry. Few months before, they already were set to leave the group as they were not pictured on the cover of the group's single "Koi wa Kuesuchon" released in early November. Okamoto later said in an interview that she initially was interested in the music and entertainment industry but felt she didn't have confidence in pursuing a solo career as an entertainer in the future and wanted to live an ordinary life as a high school student like most people do.
By the end of 1986, singles of the group, its members, "graduated" members and subgroups topped the Oricon's Japanese single chart in 36 weeks out of the 52 weeks in the year. Out of the total 46 singles that topped the chart during 1986, 30 singles were Onyanko Club-related ones. All of their studio albums released in the year were successful on the Oricon's Japanese album chart as well, with the group's second album Yume Catalogue, Nitta's first solo album ERI and Kawai's two albums Siesta and Mode de Sonoko all having reached number one on the album chart.