Teresa Teng
Career in Japan

Teng entered the Japanese market in 1973. On 1 March 1974, Teng released her first Japanese single "No Matter Tonight or Tomorrow", which marked the beginning of her career in Japan. The single initially received a lukewarm market response and was ranked 75th on the Oricon Chart with sales of approximately 30,000. The Watanabe firm considered giving up using Teng's name. However, considering her success in Asia, the record company decided to release two or three consecutive singles to test the market further. On 1 July 1974, Teng's second single "Airport" was released. The sales of 'Airport' were huge, totaling 700,000 copies. She then released a number of successful singles including "The Night Ferry" and "Goodbye, My Love". In 1979, Teng was caught with a fake Indonesian passport while entering Japan and was deported and banned from entering the country for one year.

After a long absence, Teng returned to the Japanese market on 21 September 1983, and released her first single "Tsugunai" (Atonement) after her comeback on 21 January 1984. The single did not receive good response initially; however, after a month, sales started to pick up, and seven months later, "Tsugunai" eventually ranked eighth on the Oricon Chart and first on Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart. By the end of the year, sales surpassed 700,000 copies and final sales reached a million copies. Teng won the top award of 'Singer of the year' from Japan Cable Award. "Tsugunai" won the most popular song category and stayed on the Oricon Chart for nearly a year. The success broke all the sales records of her previous period (1974–79). On 21 February 1985, Teng's next single, "Aijin" (Lover) topped the Oricon Chart and Japan cable broadcasting request chart in the first week of its release. The song remained #1 for 14 consecutive weeks and sales broke the 1.5 million mark. With "Aijin", Teng won the 'Singer of the year' for the second time. Moreover, she was invited to perform in Kōhaku Uta Gassen, which represented a high honor that is restricted to the top performers of the year in the Japanese music world. Teng's next single " Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase " was released on 21 February 1986. The single topped both the Oricon and Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart and sales of the single reached 2.5 million in Asian market becoming one of the most popular singles in Japan that year. Teng won the Japan Cable Award for the third time in a row. She was invited to perform in Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the second time. Teng became the first-ever artist to achieve three consecutive wins of this Grand Prix, also known as Japan Cable Award. She also remains the only foreign singer to win this award for three consecutive years in the history of Japanese music (1984–86). Teng gave her last solo concert at the NHK Hall in Tokyo in 1985 before semi-retiring from the entertainment circle.
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