How to be big in Japan...

We've written about Koda Kumi (or Kumi Koda) once before and now we're writing about her again. Basically, and we're not going to pretend we actually know anything about J-Pop here, she's a pretty huge deal in Japan. A huge enough deal that she has a whole 'fashion style' ("ero-kawaii") inspired by her clothing choices. A big enough deal that, even with recent controversy over a radio comment and an apparent decline in sales, her last 4 singles all went to number 1. A big enough deal that she released every single song from an album as a single and they pretty much all went top 10.

Anyway, because she's hot shit in Japan, she's clearly prime real estate when it comes to foreign acts trying to break big over there. We're not trying to present this as something new and contrived, because obviously it's been going on forever, but there it is. There was the duet she did with Fergie (yes! Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas!) and now we present to you a magazine spread she's done with Lady GaGa. It's a shame that Ms. Koda will never get the recognition abroad that she deserves, and also a shame that Ms. GaGa probably has no idea who she is, but that's just the way the world works, unfortunately.