TVXQ breaks Bon Jovi's record on Japanese chart

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean male duo TVXQ set a new record by topping Japan's Oricon weekly albums chart for the fourth consecutive time, the most for a foreign artist in Japan, the group's management said Tuesday.

The duo recently topped the Oricon weekly chart with its latest album "With," making it the act's fourth full-length album to top the chart, S.M. Entertainment said.

With this, according to Oricon's press release, TVXQ broke the record set by American rock band Bon Jovi, which topped the chart with three albums in a row five years and one month ago.

The K-pop duo previously secured the No. 1 spot on the chart for "Tone" (2011), "Time" (2013) and "Tree" (2014).

Released on Wednesday, "With" sold 233,000 copies in the first week, making it TVXQ's fourth studio album to sell over 200,000 copies in its first week.

On Saturday, TVXQ took the fifth place on Oricon's annual "Artist Total Sales Revenue" ranking for 2014 with 3.69 billion yen (approximately US$30.87 million). It was the only foreign artist on the list. The ranking is based on the gross total annual sales of CDs (both singles and albums), DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.

TVXQ is currently on a special live tour of major Asian countries dubbed "T1ST0RY."

sshim@yna.co.kr
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