Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (27/12)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 27 December 2010

1. Michael Jackson / Michael
2. Mr. Big / What If...
   
3. Black Eyed Peas / The Beginning
4. Bon Jovi / Bon Jovi Greatest Hits
5. Lady Ga Ga / The Monster
6. PiNK / Greatest Hits
7. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
8. Lady Ga Ga / The Remix
9. Lady Ga Ga / The Fame
10. Kesha / Cannibal

Source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/wa/w/
also check the last week's chart here

K-POP idol groups 2PM and U-Kiss, who were both in Top 10 last week, now can be seen nowhere in Top 10 this week. Their names are even not seen in Top 30 now. It's so interesting. I reckon many Japanese people seem to think K-POP are so popular and Korean pop stars have a huge fan base here in Japan. I think they do actually. However, I am now wondering if K-POP really can be said it reaches the mass. Of course some K-POP artists such as TVXQ (東方神起) and Girls' Generation (少女時代) are so hot and selling more CDs than many of the J-POP artists this year. Nevertheless, I now guess other smaller K-POP artists are only popular amongst many of the K-POP fans. Let's think in this way: if they really succeeded in drawing the mass to their music, 2PM and U-Kiss, for example, should have been remained at least in Top 30 this week. Their large decline in the chart shows they actually don't.

I hope this hypothesis will be proved with more examples soon.