Kudo began her singing career at the age of 14 as a member of the three-piece pop unit Seventeen Club formed by runner-ups from the 1984 Miss Seventeen Contest organized by the Japanese teen magazineSeventeen. They released two singles from CBS/Sony Records in 1985. Kudo later said she joined the group "just to have fun". Onyanko Club debuted on the first of April 1985 on Fuji TV's variety showYūyake Nyan Nyan with nine high school girls and two high school graduates, namely Sayuri Kokusho and Satomi Fukunaga. They were selected from participants in Fuji TV's show All Night Fuji High School Girl Special aired in February that year. Kudo auditioned for the group in May 1986 during her first year in high school and became a member with number 38 assigned. The group gave a new approach to the idol formula with 52 official members and three associate members, with several sub-groups, such as Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi, Nyangilas and Ushirogami Hikaretai. Kudo was selected as one of the three members of Ushirogami Hikaretai along with Akiko Ikuina and Makiko Saito. The group's first single "Toki no Kawa wo Koete" debuted at number one on the Oricon's Japanese single chart in May 1987. They subsequently released four more singles and two studio albums from July 1987 to April 1988 with a live album released as their final material in July 1988. Also, Kudo was featured as one of the four main vocals for Onyanko Club's eighth single "Katatsumuri Samba" released on May 21, 1987. It debuted at number one on the Japanese single chart. Kudo has said of her time in Onyanko Club that "it was a great experience, with good, bad and really dirty things", and that she tried not to draw too much attention to herself over senior Onyanko Club members who were more popular than her at that time. Less than three weeks before Onyanko Club disbanded on September 20, 1987 with their two-day final concerts, Kudo launched her solo career with her first single "Kindan no Telepathy" released from Canyon Records on August 31. It debuted at number one on the Japanese single chart and also became a favorite throughout Asia during the early 1990s. She enjoyed a run of eight consecutive number-one singles in Japan between 1988 and 1990, eleven in total, and four number-one albums between 1988 and 1991. She continued to release new music every year until 2000 with sporadic releases since then. Her most recent release came in 2008 when she teamed up with Miyuki Nakajima, co-composer of five of Kudo's late-1980s hits, for a double A-side, "Night Wing"/"Yuki Gasa". Kudo said of their long-term working relationship that "We are not that close. We have a nice distance. Sometimes when I hear her music, it scares me but I especially like her passionate lyrics." Kudo also appears on television in jidaigeki roles and also creates her own jewelry sold in Japan.
