Keigo Higashino’s posthumous novel Eien no Kioku reached No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Book Hot 100 in the chart released Aug. 13, according to Billboard.
The book, which roughly translates to “eternal memory,” collected 16,394 points during the tracking week, the highest single-week total ever recorded for a novel on the chart. Billboard said the previous record belonged to Uketsu’s Hen na Chizu (Strange Maps), which earned 11,566 points when it topped the chart in November 2025.
Billboard reported that Higashino’s novel was published after his death on July 23, when he was 68. The chart combines physical sales, e-book sales, library loans, subscription data and social media activity.
Elsewhere on the list, Eiichiro Oda’s ONE PIECE Vol. 115 rose to No. 2 after its digital release, while Yuto Suzuki’s SAKAMOTO DAYS Vol. 28 entered at No. 3. Yuuki Tabata’s final Black Clover volume landed at No. 4 overall.
