Omorashi (おもらし / オモラシ / お漏らし), sometimes abbreviated as simply "omo", is a fetish subculture recognized predominantly in Japan, in which participants experience arousal from having a full bladder and/or wetting themselves, or from seeing someone else experiencing a full bladder and/or wetting themselves. Outside Japan, it is not usually distinguished from urolagnia (urine fetish), though they are different things. Westerners who do make the distinction commonly use phrases such as "bladder desperation" or "panty wetting." The Japanese language term from which the subculture's name is derived means "to wet oneself," literally translated, "leaking." The word is also occasionally romanized as "omorasi" in the Kunrei-shiki romanization system.
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Attitudes toward sexuality in omorashi media
Most fetish activities concerning the use of bodily waste are considered by the general public as "hardcore", taboo, or edgeplay. However, because the object of the fetish is clothed incontinence, omorashi videos do not necessarily feature direct sexual contact. The focus on clothed (rather than overtly sexual images) makes garment fetishism a prominent feature in most omorashi erotica: commonly featured outfits include those worn by schoolgirls, working professionals, and other people attempting to look dignified before succumbing to the need to urinate.
Japanese subculture
There are many ways in which omorashi fetishism is practiced in Japan.
Yagai
One of the variations is known as omorashi yagai, which translates as "to wet oneself outdoors (or publicly)." A further variation includes yagai hōnyō, or "outdoor (or public) urination", in which the subject publicly removes their clothes to urinate. Other yagai hōnyō practitioners operate much like graffiti artists, attempting public urination acts without being caught.
Diapers
Another variation of omorashi play is omutsu omorashi, less commonly called oshime omorashi, both of which translate as "to wet oneself in a diaper." This omutsu variation is essentially the same as the standard omorashi, except that the participants are wearing a diaper. Diapers may be favorable for public wetting because they render it more discreet and eliminate mess, and their use is not limited specifically to those with a diaper fetish. However, omorashi fetishists specifically interested in this aspect of the subculture could be considered a Japanese variation of the diaper lover community.
Japanese acceptance of adult diaper use is comparatively high, with the market for such products growing as rapidly as 6–10% a year. However, the increased demographic of Japanese people with an otherwise typical adult level of bladder control voluntary wearing absorbent undergarments associated with incontinence has met with some criticism. In 2012, Japanese magazine SPA ran an article entitled “The Ultimate Form of Slob“, which criticized a trend among young Japanese women who wear diapers to avoid public restrooms. The article included an interview with a 25-year-old woman who had been wearing diapers "instead of going to the toilet" for a period of six months, "wearing almost every day."
Fetish films
In order to avoid Japan's strict censorship laws, which limited depictions of actual sex and pubic hair, erotic films (known as pink films) often relied on fetish elements which could skirt such restrictions. One such film, Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom in 1973, would be the first to depict an omorashi scenario to a theatrical audience.
As the AV (adult video) genre took hold in the 1980s, videos specifically devoted to omorashi began to arise. Several notable AV idols have starred in such scenarios, including Sakura Sakurada. However, perhaps because of its softcore nature, omorashi never became relegated to solely pornographic fare.
Today, Japanese omorashi fans also enjoy game show-style videos in which contestants must compete in various urine-holding challenges. The Giga video company's "Desperation Tournament" series is an example of this kind of contest. One such activity has been a panel of contestants competing to hold their bladders or guess which woman has to use the restroom.
Periodicals
Since the 1990s, magazine companies catering to the Japanese kink community have produced a number of periodicals dedicated to omorashi subculture, including most notably Sanwa Publishing's Omorashi Club (rendered phonetically as the wasei-eigo おもらし倶楽部, or Omorashi Kurabu). First published September 22, 1994, Omorashi Club's success allowed Sanwa to extend the brand in 2006 to include a DVD magazine. The following year, the demand for material catering specifically to omutsu omorashi fandom led to further expansion with the spin-off periodical Diapers Club (おむつ倶楽部, or Omutsu Kurabu). The scarcity of earlier issues of these magazines has caused them to become collector's items.
Anime and manga
Japanese produced omorashi media also include comic books and animation. These range from independently produced dōjinshi to large commercially produced manga. Some focus exclusively on omorashi stories, while others include only the occasional scene. Some contain obvious sexual themes and could be considered a form of H manga, while others, like Iinari! Aibure-shon are famous as all-ages comics, featuring only mild ecchi content such as panchira.
Wetting scenes have existed in anime as early as the popular Doraemon and Devilman series of the 1970s. However, these did not have the erotic context which characterizes modern omorashi media, since they predated the first full-blown anime pornography, which was not available until 1984, when the advent of the first H anime OVAs such as Wonder Kids' Lolita Anime were made possible by the widespread availability of home video. One example of this later erotic context is the 1994 H anime OVA Vixens, which features scenes of incontinence in a setting that is overtly sexual.
There are also sites where users can upload and watch their own pictures. It can be fanart or mangas. Sometimes there are GIFs involved. The most known site for such fanart is omorashi.org. Those pictures are more likely the fanart of already existing anime or game characters (SAO or Touhou), but there are some own pictures too.
Eroge
An eroge (erotic game) is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. The crossover of omorashi and anime fandom has produced a number of games such as Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber which are specifically focused on omorashi. The limited popularity of omorashi in the West has prompted a number of programmers in the scene to create software patches for these Japanese games which translate the on screen text into English.
Some eroge game designers have capitalized on the omorashi fandom's niche market by including the occasional wetting scene in their games as a selling point. MAID iN HEAVEN SuperS, for example, which contains only a single, diapered wetting scene, was used to spin-off an entire set of collectible figures in various omorashi poses. These PVC model figures were created by toy manufacturer Giga Pulse, which is not related to the video company of similar name.
Collectibles
With the translation of omorashi into manga and its subsequent adoption by otaku fandom, a number of omorashi themed collectibles have appeared on the Japanese market, including figurines and "Shizukuishi kyuun kyuun toilet paper" printed with wetting scenes featuring the character Shizukuishi from the omorashi manga, Iinari! Aibure-shon.
Outside Japan
Though there is a small community devoted to such fetishism outside Japan, it is usually overshadowed by the more hardcore fetishes, urolagnia and urophagia. Outside Japan omorashi groups sometimes refer to their shared interest as "desperation/wetting" fetishism, often making a distinction between content featuring males and females. Some English language websites with a focus on females simply identify as "panty wetting." Since such sites abandon the "desperation" title which implies an effort not to wet, they are more likely to include nudity, overtly sexual models and situations, as well as purposeful (as opposed to accidental) wetting. There are still communities which focus on the more tame or softcore aspects of omorashi, which are generally focused on simple wetting in fully or semi-clothed situations without the overtly sexual models and situations. However, this softcore side is more rare in English-speaking communities than the more explicitly sexual omorashi content.
Though there is generally no wide acceptance of incontinence-based play, recent studies in England have shown that urinary incontinence during sexual activity is a "common, but rarely volunteered symptom" observed in 24% of sexually active women. Moreover, no connection could be identified with any specific abnormality of bladder function associated with these symptoms, indicating that such leakage is both normal and healthy.
Western publications and media
Because of the western stigma in numerous countries against urine, omorashi subculture has not received such diverse exposure in non-Japanese media. In some countries, governments have even banned such materials. In New Zealand for example, creating, trading, distributing (e.g. making available on one's web page) anything promoting or supporting "the use of urine or excrement in association with degrading or dehumanising conduct or sexual conduct" is a felony punishable by up to ten (10) years in jail.
An early example of pants-wetting appearing in a sexualized context in the west can be found in the 1928 erotic novel Story of the Eye.
Omorashi periodicals outside of Japan include the Australia based, internationally distributed, Wet Set Magazine. The welcome header on their website reads:
Though Wet Set publications were originally only available in English, readership in German speaking countries has since proved high enough to justify printing some materials in German.
Though Wet Set does not generally acknowledge the comparatively large Asian fan base over any other country, some Western advocates of omorashi recognize a heavy Asian influence. For instance, in a February 2006 issue of The Brooklyn Rail, American poet Garrett Caples of Oakland, California chose to describe the shooting of an omorashi film in a Japanese setting.
Aside from lending Western omorashi media an "authentic" quality, the inclusion of Japanese models and settings might also be seen as an attempt to play upon the stereotype of ultrapassivity globally associated with Asian women, further enhancing their perceived moe qualities and catering to Asian fetishists.
Music
Cat Chaser Conspiracy, an American all-girl punk rock band, became known during the 80s and 90s for performing a panty-wetting stage act as they played songs about wetting themselves. Some "wetty gurl" fans would wet themselves when these songs were played. Before their breakup in 1999, members made regular appearances in the pages of Wet Set magazine. Their second vocalist, Moppet, appeared as a model in a number of photosets, including #84 through 89.
Another all-female band, Rockbitch, would often use omorashi as part of their performance, wetting themselves onstage and also peeing on willing participants in the audience.
Other examples of omorashi in English language rock music include another all-female group, Crucified Barbara, from Sweden. Their song "I Wet Myself" from their debut album In Distortion We Trust states:
In BDSM
Omorashi may be practiced in BDSM, where the dominant controls how and when the submissive is allowed to use the bathroom. This is sometimes referred to as bathroom use control. The 2002, the award-winning film Secretary depicted a scene of bathroom use control resulting in pants-wetting.