To coincide with the announcent of the new era that begins on May 1 being named “Reiwa”, Oricon made an announcement of its own today. After years of complaints by the music listening public and as a means of keeping its relevancy, Oricon has decided that it will no longer count CDs which include handshake tickets. This new policy will go into effect on the first day of the Reiwa era, May 1. But this new rule doesn’t just apply to future releases; it’s also being applied to past releases.

Oricon stated that during the creation of their soon to be released Heisei era charts, they noticed several incidents of chart inflation during the last decade of era. Wanting the chart to accurately reflect the Heisei era, they decided to level the playing field by not allowing CD sales that included handshake tickets.

Oricon decided to carry this over to their regular weekly charts as well, keeping in line with recent changes like the creation of the combined single chart, the combined album chart, the digital single chart, the digital album chart, and the streaming chart. This change at the start of the Reiwa era will ensure that the charts of the era will be accurate from the beginning, avoid the current situation with the Heisei era-end charts.