Koda Kumi announces her second pregnancy. And the North remembers the Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate of 2008.

Koda Kumi has announced that she is with child. Well, Avex did. And a lot of the public responses online are bringing up Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate of 2008. If you know, you know. But in case you don’t, pull up a seat.

When Kumi was on a radio show in January of 2008, the topic of marriage came up, which then led to talk of children. And Kumi had mentioned that women’s amniotic fluid ‘goes rotten’ as they age, so she hopes [women] will try to have children by the age of 35. The backlash from this was immediate and swift, resulting in all promo for her album, Kingdom — which had only released a day before — being halted and her losing a whole bunch of brand deals, including cosmetics brand Kosé and Coca-fucking-Cola. Losing a Coca-Cola bag in my mid 20s would have made me SPIRAL.

But despite promo for the album being halted, Kingdom still debuted at number 1 on the Oricon, as it was always going to. Album cycles usually end as soon as the album drops anyway. Then it’s all about the tour for the album, which still went ahead for Kingdom — giving Kumi the chance to address her fans in person for her comment and apologise. As much as the media tries to block and blacklist in the midst of scandals, they do sell and generate a mass of interest that no planned media campaign could generate. So I don’t think any of this hurt Kumi’s album or tour ticket sales. But it definitely put a ding in Kumi’s shiny career that she would never be able to T-Cut.

Koda Kumi crying at the mess | Avex

Japan is such a risk and controversy-averse country and culture. So, being tied to any type of scandal is going to leave a bit of a stench that never goes away. To this day, I don’t think Kosé or Coca-Cola have worked with Kumi since Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate. And as we can see from the responses to news of Kumi’s pregnancy and Avex’s choice to cancel all of the public appearances that Kumi had scheduled — it hasn’t gone away at all.

You would think that Avex would still want Kumi to be active and do some promo, but they are clearly fearful that some rogue host will bring up Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate and that the public seeing Kumi pregnant on TV and mentioning her pregnancy on radio shows will willingly put Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate back in the mass public consciousness, with the rhetoric being that she was wrong and the nation joking about how Kumi kept her amniotic fluid from spoiling.

I do think that Kumi’s comments were blown just a tad out of proportion. But I also fully acknowledge the cultural and societal climate under which Kumi made these comments. Japan has a steadily shrinking birth-rate and there has long been an expectation and pressure on women to marry and have children as a priority, with society often looking down on those who choose to stay single or co-habitate with a man with no intention of marriage or having kids — something which Kumi herself perpetuated with her old broken pussy comment, which was directed at her then manager who had just gotten married.

Pregnancy is also still somewhat of a taboo subject in Japan. It’s not something which is openly discussed. And you rarely see pregnant women still active on TV and in public media. Usually when a celebrity announces they are pregnant, they disappear from the public eye completely until they have their child(ren). I’d assume (a dangerous thing to do…I know) that women probably feel stifled and boxed in by not only the expectation of them to have children, but to have to remove themselves from society. And because of this expectation, a woman’s career in corporate is pretty much over once she’s married and / or pregnant, because the assumption is ‘Oh, she’s just gonna be a homemaker’ and not that a woman would want to pick her career back up. But it’s easier to direct that frustration to somebody who makes a comment like ‘Girl, have children before you’re 35 years old’ and not at society for imposing this pressure on you, not making open conversations around obstetrics and IVF treatments a norm, and a lack of career progression for women who return to the workplace after having children.

I think it would be amazing for Kumi to still do public appearances and face Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate head on to really flip the narrative of it. Because as a woman in her 40s, she is proof that having children past the age of 35 is possible, and she can make light of how she was ignorant back then, and wants to do her part to share information which can actually help women in their late 30s and 40s who want to have children. And Kumi herself is proof (albeit from a position of privilege) that you can have a child, continue your career AND also be the breadwinner. Because her baby father sure ain’t bringing in the yen that she does. He’s pretty much been a Koda Kumi employee for the past decade.

Pregnancy in and of itself is a HUGE risk to women — further reason why this also needs to be a more open discussion in Japan, regardless of whether it scares women off of getting pregnant in a country with a rapidly shrinking birth rate — but it’s a bigger risk to women as they get older. Kumi is great with people and super personable. So, I think there would be a natural lightness and comfort to how Kumi talks about her journey as a pregnant woman in her 40s and how she feels about it. And she would most certainly be more careful with her 1000 words following Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate. But because Japan is such a risk and controversy-averse country and culture, we are not going to get this and it’s a shame.

A big name such as Kumi being open about pregnancy and creating a space for it to be discussed at scale could really go some way towards a much needed shift. And the power balance for her is VERY different now. Sure, Kumi isn’t selling albums at the rate at which she used to, but she can still sell tour tickets and has a level of popularity that will never completely go away. So she doesn’t really have anything to lose. But…Japan being risk and controversy-averse innit. And one thing about Kumi is that she refuses to rock the boat and try new approaches, as is evidenced by the stagnancy of her music, which is as expired as 35+ year old amniotic fluid — if the 2008 studies of Dr. Kumi were true.

HENNYWAY.

Kumi was due to kickstart her 2026 Kingdom tour in the Summer, but this has been postponed. And it’s oddly coincidental that Rotten Pussy Fluid Gate halted all promo for the Kingdom album back in 2008 and cast a shadow over its accompanying tour. 

Suttin’ about Kingdom y’all.

But, congrats to Kumi on her second pregnancy.

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💿 Koda Kumi reviews: Affection | Secret | Grow into One | Feel My Mind | Black Cherry | Trick | Kingdom | Universe | Eternity ~Love & Songs~ | Dejavu | Japonesque | Color the Cover | Bon Voyage | Walk Of My Life | W Face | AND | DNA | re(CORD) | angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] | Heart | Unicorn | De:Code