“待って待って。(Wait, wait.)”
IN-TTEO-VIEW (Pre-Debut Interview w/ KKUTEO) QUESTION: Did you see yourself doing this job when you were younger, and what was your intended job as a child? K: “When I was a kid, I planned to be a building designer like my mom, and I didn’t have a thought of leaving Japan, ever. Since my parents had money, they moved me to the US and my members influenced me into becoming, or at least trying to be a global artist. I didn’t know I would pass, and honestly, I wouldn’t have done it without my friends.”
UKON KŌJI, stage name KOJI, was born in Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan on July 30, 2006. Growing up, his father was a construction, and his mother was a building designer. When KOJI was born, they were halfway done with the Kajisome Financial Building (かじそめ金融建物), which is a 89-story bank building for The Kajisome Bank. His mom still had to help build the building despite her pregnancy. The building was planned in 1981, and was said to be completed before 2010. His parents had the bold idea of renaming the building after him, so after he was born & named, they renamed it to the Koji-some Bank Building (光司ー染銀行建物) without the bank’s permission. When the bank found out, they were furious. The bank nearly sued KOJI’s parents for approximately 20,000,000 yen (~100,000 USD). KOJI’s parents won the lawsuit with the argument that they were the one building the building. In the end, the bank was legally forced to change their name to Koji-some Bank. His parents didn’t have enough time for him because they were working on the building, so KOJI was taken care by his grandma most of the time. KOJI entered pre-school in 2009 at the age of 3, the same year when his parents finally finished the building after 28 years. He only went to school in Japan for 15 years, up until he was 18. In KOJI’s teen years, his mom often brought him to the construction site of the building and the blueprint of the building, which fascinated him. At 15, him and his parents moved to Tokyo, where he entered high school. He took engineering & coding classes and absolutely loved it. To this day, he still has the construction cap his dad gave him. The bank paid KOJI’s parents 10,000,000 yen (~63,000 USD) for the actual construction, and 160,000 yen (~1000 USD) each month. After they received the money, they decided to move to the US permanently, and leave the money for KOJI’s grandparents as a substitute. KOJI moved to the US at the age of 17. KOJI decided to learn more English in an ESL school, so he applied. The first person he sat next to was RUNO. He became friends with RUNO first, who was only 14 at the time. Despite being the 3rd member of KKUTEO, he was the 2nd to join the friend group entirely. After HECTO’s birthday, they found a poster advertising a global audition for a global boy group under HYBE and Geffen Records. KOJI was really unsure, as he didn’t know that he was fit for that occupation. Growing up he didn’t do any dancing nor singing. But, he still gave it a shot. With his group, they end up winning, and moving on to the next stages of training in South Korea. Recently, his grandfather died due to a heart attack at the age of 89.
KKUTEO “CAMPFIRE - EP” KOJI Photocard 12 AM Photobook Ver.
KKUTEO “CAMPFIRE - EP” KOJI Photocard 12 PM Photobook Ver.
KKUTEO “TOAL FAILURE” CAMPFIRE KOJI SOLO TRAILER
Name: UKON KŌJI (KOJI) 코지 (KOR) コジ (JAP) DTB: July 30, 2006 (19) PTB: Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan Race: Japanese Languages: Japanese/English Top hobby: coding and drawing Single Male questioning He/him
3rd member of KKUTEO
Instagram: @kojikoiku (ko.ji)