Swajiri Erika AKA "Kaoru Amane" is breaking records. Her song "TAIYOU no uta" had 500,000 downloads (chaku-uta) and earned 100 million yen before the CD even came out. This is supposedly the highest record for a single song downloaded before the CD is released. (They make it sound like TAIYOU no uta alone sold that much...but it seems like the number is combined with the c/w "Stay with me"...as stated later on on the article. In any case, it's supposedly record-breaking.)
They're also shipping out over 150,000 copies of the CD, a very rare case for a new artist. Including an addition 50,000 ordering, it is confirmed that the first week will reach 200,000 copies in sales (OK I'm slightly confused by how they calculated this but...).
She will also appear for the "first time and the last time" on CDTV on 9/9 (tentative).
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060830-00000018-spn-ent