Members of K-pop group Girls' Generation performs during their concert at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan, May 31. The group’s first studio album in Japan topped the Oricon Weekly Chart. / Courtesy of S.M. Entertainment

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Korean girl band Girls' Generation topped the Japanese Oricon Weekly Chart with its first album there.

The group's first studio album in Japan was released on June 1 and sold 232,000 copies, according to S.M. Entertainment, the group's agency. The album sold some 73,000 copies on the day of its release.

It marks record sales for an overseas artist's first album in Japan and the second time for a foreign female group to take first place on the Oricon Chart for first week sales, after Russian duo t.A.T.u.

The group is in the middle of a tour of six Japanese cities with 14 concerts from Osaka and Tokyo to Hiroshima and Nagoya, expecting to draw some 140,000 concertgoers.

The girls left for Paris Tuesday to take part in the SMTOWN Live World Tour on Friday and Saturday.

The group will attend the MTV Video Music Aid Japan at Makuhari Messe in Chiba on June 25 with K-pop group SHINee. Girls' Generation will hold their second concert in Korea on July 23 and 24.