Let’s turn back the hands of time as we look back at the songs that impacted the Japanese music industry on the Oricon Weekly Chart. This week we dive into the third week of March for both 2010 and 2015 where Johnny’s boy group ARASHI and dominating mega-idol group AKB48 reigned supreme with “Troublemaker” and “Green Flash” respectively. But what made these songs just so great?

Starting off the decade, Johnny’s boy group ARASHI released their twenty-ninth single “Troublemaker”. Set to be the theme song of member Sho Sakurai’s then upcoming comical-lawyer-drama 特上カバチ!! (Tokujou Kabachi!!), the single kicked off what was then to be known as the peak of their popularity. The single was written by H. Suzuki, composed by Masashi Ohtsuki, and played to the group’s uplifting style with a high energy composition that had fans jumping out of their seats and dancing. “Troublemaker” debuted at number-one on the daily charts selling close to 232,000 copies and debuted on the weekly charts selling over 540,000 copies. Reaching that sales mark made Arashi the second group to have single sales exceed over 500,000 for two consecutive years and had ended to become the third best-selling single of 2010.

“Green Flash” was mega-idol group AKB48’s thirty-ninth single and was written by like all song by the 48 system at this time by Yasushi Akimoto, composed by Carlos K. Yuki Kashiwagi, as well as Haruna Kojima were the center performers for this song and was Kashiwagi’s first time being center albeit being in a double center format. “Green Flash” had stood apart from other 48 system’s style of songs by holding a medium-tempo composition, with member Minami Takahashi and Sayaka Yamamoto rapping throughout the song. While on paper this gamble might of failed, but against all odds initially sold over 860,000 copies on it’s first day and sold over 1 million copies in the first week. The single became the 20th consecutive million-selling single, making AKB48 the first group to achieve such a feat. It is also the twenty-sixth consecutive Oricon chart topping single breaking Ayumi Hamasaki’s record of twenty-five.

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