Nihon Monitor published the report for the highest number of commercials a female celebrity appeared in for the first half of 2012. Without doubt, popular idol group AKB48 dominated the first spot. They took the overall number 1 spot from the "Bashful Prince" professional golfer Ryo Ishikawa.
The number 1 spot belong to three AKB48 members, Tomomi Itano, Mariko Shinoda and Atsuko Maeda. All three girls have 17 different companies that they are endorsing. The second spot was also taken by an AKB48 member, Minami Takahashi with 16 companies. While the 3rd spot are occupied by child actress Mana Ashida and Rino Sashihara who recently transferred to HKT48 from AKB48; both are contracted to 15 companies.
Aya Ueto once dominated this ranking fell to fifth place with 12 companies. While relatively new actress, Ayame Gouriki took 9 commercials and the media are touting her as the next actress to dominate the chart.
On the male celebrity side, Ryo Ishikawa took number 1 spot with 14 companies. All Arashi members made it into the chart. Korean actor Jang Geun Suk made it to number 4 with seven companies. Korean actor Bae Yong Jun entered the chart in 2004. But since then Jang Geun Suk is the only Korean celebrity to make it into this chart.
Rankings:
Female Celebrity Endorsement Ranking
1) 17 Companies
Tomomi Itano (AKB48)
Mariko Shinoda (AKB48)
Atsuko Maeda (AKB48)
2) 16 Companies
Minami Takahashi (AKB48)
3) 15 Companies
Mana Ashida
Rino Sashihara (AKB48)
4) 14 Companies
Aya Ueto
Yuki Kashiwagi (AKB48)
Haruna Kojima (AKB48)
5) 11 Companies
Emi Takei
6) 10 Companies
Sawa Homare
Becky
7) 9 Companies
Yuki Amame
Haruka Ayase
Ayame Gouriki
Miyu Honda
Mayu Watanabe (AKB48)
8) 8 Companies
Sasaki Nozomi
Yui Yokayama (AKB48)
ROLA
Male Celebrity Endorsement Ranking
1) 14 Companies
Ryo Ishikawa
2) 10 Companies
Sakurai Sho (Arashi)
Fuku Suzuki
Osamu Mukai
3) 9 Companies
Masaki Aiba (Arashi)
Takuya Kimura (SMAP)
Kazunari Ninomiya (Arashi)
Jun Matsumoto (Arashi)
4) 7 Companies
Satoshi Ohno (Arashi)
Katori Shingo (SMAP)
Taichi Kokubun (TOKIO)
Takeru Sato
Masahiro Nakai (SMAP)
Tomoya Nagase (TOKIO)
Jang Geun Suk
5) 6 Companies
Hiroshi Abe
Ichiro Suzuki
Jun'ichi Okada (V6)
Shun Oguri
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (SMAP)
TAKAHIRO (EXILE)
Masaharu Fukuyama
Matsuoka Shuzo
Junpei Mizobata
Tatsuya Yamaguchi (TOKIO)
Source: Nihon Monitor via jpopasia