Japanese actress, Emi Takei, who plays Kaoru kamiya in the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films, recently got married and became pregnant. Because of this, she breached several contracts which state she can’t get married or pregnant. Newspaper Daily Sports reported that one of these contracts include the Rurouni Kenshin film series. They also revealed that the producers are already planning a fourth film. However, Takei’s breach of contract has caused some problems.

The actress recently married Exile band member Takahiro, and she is now pregnant. Her own agency, Oscar Promotion, recently apologised to all of her clients. They are now also negotiating penalties for her breach of contract. And it seems that those penalties are quite high, and are even worth 1 billion yen. She may also have her agreement with SSP terminated, and it would affect her other contracts. She currently has about 10 different agreements with companies, all of which are for her commercial endorsements.

Japanese rules about getting married or pregnant in the entertainment industries are strict. Some even state that female celebrities can’t have boyfriends. Fans and observers in the west have criticised this practice.

And as for the fourth Rurouni Kenshin film itself, the newspaper really didn’t discuss much about it. However, they did say that Takei’s role as Kaoru is too important, and the story can’t just write her off.

Source: Daily Sports