The 18th Oricon Annual Book Ranking 2025, which compiles book sales for this year, has been announced, revealing that Kazunari Ninomiya's first paperback, "Dokudan to Biyon" (Shueisha), released on June 17th, recorded sales of approximately 166,000 copies during the period, ranking first in the celebrity book genre and paperback category.
This is the third time that a paperback has topped the celebrity book category of the rankings for the year, following Agawa Sawako's "The Power of Listening: 35 Tips to Open Your Heart" (released in 2012) and Kiki Kirin's "Everything is by fate: The words of Kiki Kirin" (released in 2018), and the first time for a man to do so.
Regarding this remarkable achievement, Ninomiya commented, "I think it's honestly amazing. It's common for the number of 'first' experiences to decrease as you get older, so I'm truly grateful to be able to encounter new 'firsts'. This is something I couldn't have achieved on my own, and I hoped that those who read it would feel something from it, or that it would give them some kind of hint, so I think it was meaningful that so many people picked up the book."
In the book's afterword, he concluded, "If it's permitted, I hope to see you again." Regarding whether he would write a follow-up work, he declined to say, "In this book, I didn't decide to call it a 'theory of entertainment' or a 'theory of acting' or anything like that. I used four-character idioms as inspiration and derived from them, and talked about universal themes such as my way of life, my way of thinking, and my perspective on things. Perhaps that's why it resonated with a wide range of readers. If there was a follow-up, I think it would be better to have a universal theme, but the possibility... who knows (laughs)."
Finally, he said, "Awards are only received by representative people, but I believe that any award is received because of the hard work of people who share in the joy of receiving it. This time too, I owe it all to the people who supported me, and I believe it's an award for them, so I would be happy if everyone could celebrate with me."
In the book, Ninomiya, now in his 40s, tackles a total of 100 questions based on 10 four-character idioms, and writes based on his own "arbitrary opinions and prejudices" on topics ranging from business theories and ways of interacting with others, conversation skills and views on life and death.
The calculation period for the 18th Oricon Annual Book Ranking 2025 is from December 2nd last year to November 24th this year. The actual calculation period is from November 18th last year to November 16th this year.
