Otsuka Ai

Ai Otsuka (大塚 愛, Otsuka Ai, born September 9, 1982) is a female Japanese pop singer-songwriter and pianist from Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She has two pet dwarf rabbits, Choko and Kokoa. She is a popular artist on the avex trax label and is best-known for her 2003 hit Sakuranbo, which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 85 weeks. Her first single, 2003's "Momo no hanabira", was a minor hit, peaking at #24 on the Oricon singles top 100, but stayed on the charts for 21 weeks. Her next single, "Sakuranbo", released in December 2003, became the 12th best selling single of 2004. Gradually climbing the charts to top 5, the single stayed on the chart for 101 weeks (almost two years), and a special "encore press" version was commissioned, which peaked at #4. In early March, 2004 Otsuka released her last single before her first album. "Amaenbo" was used in a television advertisement for Sato Healthcare's cold relief tablets Stona Rhini S (ストナリニS, sutona rini S). "Amaenbo" was unable to reach #1 on the Oricon Charts and ended up at #6 while at the same time "Sakuranbo" was #5. This was the first time in Japanese music history a female artist was able to have two singles in the top ten in the same week, until 2005 Kumi Koda was able to beat Ai with three singles within the same week. By end of March 2004, her first album "Love Punch" was released, which debuted at #3 on the Oricon charts and sold 190,265 copies in its first week. She continued to release singles and gradually built a diverse and devoted following.