Cuteness in Japanese Culture

Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japanese- “kawaii”,has become a prominent aspect of Japanese pop culture. It is evidently exemplified in Japan’s entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. Foreign observers often find this cuteness intriguing, revolting or even childish because the Japanese employ it in a vast array of situations and demographics where, in other cultures, it would be considered incongruously juvenile or frivolous (for example, in government publications, public service warnings, office environments, military advertisements, and commercial airliners, among many others).

How then, did cuteness come about in the Japanese Pop Culture? The rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing. Many teenage girls began write in big, round characters and they added little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, smiley faces, and letters of the Latin alphabet. These pictures would be inserted randomly and made the writing very hard to read. As a result, this writing style caused a lot of controversy and was banned in many schools. During the 1980s, however, this cute new writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising and became a hit among the young Japanese.

Because of this growing trend, companies, such as Sanrio, came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was an immediate success and the obsession with cute continued to progress in other areas as well. Now, cuteness is no longer limited to teenagers as it appears even in common household items, such as airplanes painted with Pikachu on the side, and each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, the Tokyo police, and the government television station all have their own cute mascots. “Cuteness” is also a cash cow for many Japanese companies. Currently, Sanrio’s line of more than 50 characters generates more than $1 billion a year and remains the most successful company to capitalize on the cute trend.

This “Cuteness” also exerts an influence on other cultures. Cute merchandise and products are especially popular in some parts of East Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. An interesting example of the 'cuteness' notion influencing nearby Asian societies is the logo particular to the Republic of Korea's Army. This logo is located at the demilitarized zone lookout, within the ROK territory south of the partition. This Korean Army logo exemplifies a significant disparity between East-Asian societies that actively identify with 'cute' images and communication, as opposed to most other societies who would view these images as frivolous in such a setting.