TVXQ rose to the highest ranking amongst foreign artists on the Oricon chart for the mid-year 2011 rankings. In the recently published Oricon singles chart for the first half of 2011, AKB48 held the top two spots (1st and 2nd), followed by the 5 member male group Arashi at 3rd. Coming in at 4th place was none other than TVXQ. Last January, TVXQ released "Why?" (Keep Your Head Down), in which the approximate sales were around 130,000 units on the first day, winning the Oricon daily singles chart. With 230,000 copies sold during the first week, it also topped the Oricon weekly chart. With such a substantial sales figure in it's first week of release, unimaginable by most foreign artists, TVXQ held 1st on both the Oricon daily and weekly singles chart. It marked the 9th time in which they ranked 1st, which is a record (by a sizable margin) for the highest amount of number 1 hits by a foreign artist. After TVXQ in the singles chart, other Korean artists also performed admirably. KARA ranked 12th, while Jang Geun Suk came in at 15th. With almost 320,000 copies sold, SNSD ranked 10th on the full album chart, while KARA ranked 14th with almost 230,000 copies sold, attracting much attention for it's high rankings. Meanwhile, TVXQ is scheduled to release their next Japanese single, "Superstar" on July 20th. "Superstar" is expected to place 1st on the weekly charts and it is already believed that TVXQ will break another record. Source: Newsen