In the 21st century, he released three albums and all of them reached number one on the official Japanese music chart, Oricon. Above all, compilation album "Jiko Best" (2002) sold over 2,200,000 copies. With the release of his album "Soukana" in 2005, he became the oldest solo music artist to reach number one on Oricon's album chart. His 2007 single "Kokoro" also made him the oldest solo music artist to reach number one on Oricon's single's chart. (This record has since been surpassed by Junko Akimoto, in 2009).