"Akai Ito" is a pop song by Japanese recording artist Yui Aragaki

Yui Aragaki

is a Japanese idol, model, actress, singer, seiyū and occasional radio show host of Ryukyuan ancestry.She is particularly recognized for her beauty and her movie projects.- Overview :...

. It was released as her second single on October 15, 2008.

Background

"Akai Ito" is a cover of one of Kobukuro

Kobukuro

is a Japanese band, which formed in 1998 and made its major label debut in 2001. The name is a portmanteau of the two family names, Kentarō Kobuchi and Shunsuke Kuroda.- Members :...

's lesser known songs from their independent releases. Kobukuro's team wanted to bring focus to the song once again and suggested to the band they have a female vocalist cover it. Upon hearing Kobukuro perform the song at a Warner Music Japan Convention concert, Aragaki fell in love with the song and agreed to cover it. Aragaki's version was subsequently produced by Tokyo Jihen

Tokyo Jihen

is a Japanese band started by , after leaving her solo career. The band's debut single Gunjo Biyori was released in September 2004.- Origins:...

 member Seiji Kameda

Seiji Kameda

is a Japanese music producer, arranger and bass guitarist.He is currently the bassist in Ringo Shiina's band, "Tokyo Jihen".- Biography :He was born in New York city, and went back to Japan at one year after birth....

.

The single was released in two formats: a limited edition, which has an illustration cover drawn by Aragaki herself and a standard edition, which comes with a bonus DVD that includes the music video for "Akai Ito" as well as its making of.

Chart performance

"Akai Ito" peaked at #1 on the daily Oricon

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 singles chart and #3 on the weekly chart, selling 34,236 copies in its first week. The song debuted at #1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100

Japan Hot 100

The Japan Hot 100 is a music singles chart in Japan. It is compiled by Billboard and Hanshin Contents Link ever since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at billboard-japan.com and every Thursday at billboard.com ....

, making it her second consecutive number-one debut on this chart "Akai Ito" was the 15th best selling single for the month of October and ranked #120 on the yearly Oricon singles chart.

Track listing

Charts and sales

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Chart (2008)	Peak positions	Sales
64,461
	Japan Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...  Daily Singles Chart	1
	Japan Oricon Weekly Singles Chart	3
	Japan Oricon Monthly Singles Chart	15
	Japan Oricon Yearly Singles Chart	120
	Japan SoundScan Singles Chart (CD+DVD)	5
	Japan SoundScan Singles Chart (CD)	6

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format
Japan	October 15, 2008	Warner Music Japan Warner Music Group Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...	CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...  (Limited Edition)
			CD+DVD DVD A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions.... (Standard Edition)