RYUICHI KAWAMURA

Ryuichi Kawamura (河村 隆一, Kawamura Ryūichi, born May 20, 1970 in Yamato, Kanagawa) is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known as lead singer of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989. He started a solo career in 1997, three years before Luna Sea disbanded in 2000. In 2005, Kawamura formed Tourbillon with fellow Luna Sea member Inoran and Hiroaki Hayama. He rejoined Luna Sea when they reunited in August 2010. Kawamura's first full-length album Love topped the Oricon chart with sales of around 1,021,000 copies, making him the only male solo artist to have an album sell over one million copies within its initial week in Oricon charts history. That same album sold over 3,200,000 copies by the end of the year, therefore it holds the record for best-selling male solo album. In 1997 alone, with his mini and full-length albums and four singles (of which "Glass" sold over one million itself), he sold over six million records.