FTIsland tops Oricon daily chart for the 1st time

Album cover for FTIsland's 1st regular album in Japan "FIVE TREASURE ISLAND" [FNC Music]

FTIsland has become the first Korean rock band to top Japan’s prestigious Oricon chart.

The chart's official website showed that FTIsland’s first full-length album in Japan “FIVE TREASURE ISLAND” sold 20,410 copies on the day of its release on May 18 to top the daily albums chart.

The group’s highest score on the Oricon chart up til now was with their debut single in the country, titled “Flower Rock,” which ranked fourth on the daily chart a year ago.

The same day, FTIsland shared the news with about 5,000 of their Japanese fans who gathered at the special event to celebrate the release of the “FIVE TREASURE ISLAND” held at the Open Theater EAST in Yomiuri Land, their agency FNC Music said through a press release on Thursday.

At the event, the group sang their past hits as well as the tracks to their newest album such as “Rock’n’roll,” “Mirai,” “Yume” and “Itsuka” and “Haruka,” the theme songs to J-drama “Muscle Girl” in which the group’s vocalist Lee Hong-gi plays the male lead.

“It’s hard to believe that we made it to the top,” FTIsland members were quoted as saying. “We’ll work even harder to produce good music. We ask for your continuous love and support.”

Meanwhile, the rock quintet is set to set to tour Japan in the summer which will include a performance at Nippon's Budokan on July 29, making them the first Korean band to take to the stage of the venue.

The tour itself, titled "Tour 2011 Summer Messenger," will kick off in Nagoya on June 29, followed by shows in Osaka on July 2, Tokyo on July 6, Fukuoka on July 8 and wrap up at the Budokan.

FTIsland, composed of other members Song Seung-hyun, Choi Min-han and Choi Jong-hoon released their first album "Cheerful Sensibility" in 2007 and followed it up with several singles and studio albums including "Colorful Sensibility," "Cross and Change" and most recently, "beautiful journey."

They expanded their career into Japan in 2008 with single albums “Flower Rock” and “Brand-new days."

Recently the group announced their plans to make a comeback to Korea with their third mini-album “RETURN” set to hit stores in on May 24.

FTIsland ranked on top of Oricon daily chart as of May 17, 2011 (Capture from Oricon Style chart)

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