The Curious Case of Hello Kitty: Locating the Global Feline Icon

In this paper, I will explore the dimensions of Kawaii as a core value of all aspects of Japanese society and how this Japanese ‘Culture of Cute’ has been embedded, commodified, exported and adopted to become a transnational culture and international image of Japan. This qualitative analysis will focus on: 1/ Kawaii’s central role in promoting immaturity as key to Japanese national identity, 2/ Kawaii as a peculiar Japanese aesthetic and 3/ Kawaii as a regionalized and globalized culture that increasingly has become part of policy and diplomacy, communication and entertainment and product creation, advertising and marketing to such an extent that it is modifying and defining social tastes, trends and behavior in Japan, Asia and beyond. The aesthetic of Kawaii centers on “Baby Schema”; a set of features commonly seen in young animals and children: a large head relative to the body size, a high and protruding forehead, large eyes, and so forth (Nittono et al. 2012). As replicated in various Kawaii art forms such as manga and anime, the attributes of this ‘Baby Schema’ are designed to elicit behavioral responses rooted in passivity, child-like innocence, superficial playfulness and pseudo- nurturing. Cute culture is designed to promote and celebrate the Burriko (fake child) Syndrome among women and the “Peter Pan Syndrome” among men as an officially sanctioned policy of the Japanese national identity in the face of zero population growth and an aging population that fears an uncertain future and thus finds comfort in being frozen in a perpetual child-like state. Adulthood becomes less scary if your sex toy is pink and decorated with Hello Kitty, your girlfriend is perpetually Lolita-like or your phone strap is Doraemon (popular among Japanese men). Japan’s success in redefining its post-World War II national identity and international image as peaceful, harmonious and cute has in turn become a rebranded fetishist cultural commodity exported to other Asian countries and ultimately the world, causing a rupture in a global market of heroes, icons, and fantasies long dominated by the [macho] cultural industries of the United States (Allison 2002).. Therefore, archetypical American fare is being supplanted by such Cute Culture icons as diva Kyary Pamyu Pamyu promoting Kawaii J-Pop, cosplay and fantasy fashion and Pokemon fighting adorable pocket monsters. This analysis will examine the shifting complexities surrounding the global reach of ‘Cool’ Japan Cute culture by discussing the opinions of ardent supporters and virulent detractors both in Japan and around the world. Keywords: Kawaii, Culture of Cute, commodification, transnational culture, Japanese aesthetic, Japanese national identity and international image

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, 2020

Kawaii and cute are increasingly prominent aesthetics in contemporary global culture. While Japan’s kawaii boom arguably began in the 1970s (Kinsella 1995: 220), it wasn’t until the late 20th/early 21st century that cuteness began to explode worldwide as the number of cute images, commodities, foods, fashions, and fandoms underwent rapid expansion (Dale 2017: 1). The new field of cuteness studies, formed to address this phenomenon, analyzes not only its history and development, but also the connection between cuteness and gender, race, ethnicity, age, nationality, politics, and interspecies affiliations. Its aim is to take seriously what is often dismissed as a facile commodity aesthetic because of its gendered association with femininity, childhood and the domestic sphere (Dale 2017: 2; Ngai 2012: 3).

International Journal of Japanese Sociology, 2011

This essay will consider gendered aspects of Cool Japan ideology as found in government-sponsored texts and imagery, as well as in other international arenas. Although scholars have recently offered critiques of Cool Japan as a form of nationalistic nation branding, uses of an objectified femininity have rarely been included in these analyses. By displacing female innovations and creativity in cultural production to the margins, Cool Japan reifies and officially promotes male geek culture. We find general dematerialization of the producers of Cool Japan ideology, which in turn becomes characterized as creative, quirky, edgy, and benign, thus masking the way Cool Japan has been produced, critiqued, imagined and endorsed primarily by male elites in Japan and internationally. This discussion suggests that Cool Japan's otaku ethos does not include women and girls who fail to conform to a narrow model of cute femininity, thus maintaining and promoting structures of gender stratification. In addition, the global spread and government exploitation of uncomplicated cuteness (kawaii) often confounds a flat understanding of the aesthetic with a gendered perspective and its expressions in girl culture. Women and girls are contained in Cool Japan ideology, and are not usually represented as shaping, resisting, creating or critiquing Japanese popular culture.i jjs_1145 18..29

The recent boom in cute characters (kyara) has permeated Japanese popular aesthetics to the extent that character-shaped foods have displaced the former emphasis on recreating natural objects in bento (packed lunches) created for preschoolers. Prior to this development, Anne Allison described bento as an ‘ideological state apparatus’. Under this rubric, learning to make a proper bento was a part of training women to be proper mothers of preschoolers, just as eating it quickly and completely helped train the children as model citizens. Contemporary mothers of small children, having been reared on Hello Kitty and her ilk, are now no longer simply the targets of character merchandizing, but the promulgators. Performing the domestic and educational rituals of kyaraben encourages women’s and children’s production and consumption of ‘character culture’.

Cuteness Engineering: Designing Adorable Products and Services, 2017

In this chapter, the Japanese word “kawaii will be discussed instead of “cute” because the Japanese do not use the English word “cuteness” or “cute” in their conversation or in written form and “kawaii” is the closest word to “cute.” The first author is Masaaki Kurosu. This state of the art monograph presents a unique introduction to thinking about cuteness and its incorporation into modern, especially computer-based, products and services. Cuteness is defined and explored in relation to user-centered design concepts and methods, in addition to considering the history of cuteness and cuteness in other cultures, especially in relation to eastern Asia. The authors provide detailed analyses and histories of cuteness in Japan and in China, the rise of Kawaii and Moe cultural artifacts, and their relation to social, psychological, and design issues. They also attempt an initial taxonomy of cuteness. Finally, detailed interviews with leading designers of cute products and services, such as Hello Kitty, provide an understanding of the philosophy and decision-making process of designers of cuteness. Cuteness Engineering: Designing Adorable Products and Services will be of interest and use to a wide range of professionals, researchers, academics, and students who are interested in exploring the world of cuteness in fresh new ways and gaining insights useful for their work and studies.

Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 2021

Big eyes, flying tanukis, talking teddy bears, angry red pandas, and the list carries on. Anthropomorphic characters laugh and cry, search for retribution, fight evil magicians, try to stop experiments, fall in love, or just struggle with work while reenacting our human emotions on the big screen; usually, in the Japanese animation context, in kawaii or “cute” form. Although the aesthetics and use of kawaii has gained its place in the mainstream consumption of Japanese popular culture as “pure,” “childlike,” or “adorable,” this artistic and narrative device has a long history of both consumption and subversion when exposed as empty, superficial, and flawed. In this paper, I propose critically exploring the “cuteness” or kawaii tradition in Japanese animation, as a site of resistance and a form of counterculture. Through a close reading of such animated series as Aggretsuko (2018), BNA: Brand New Animal (2020) or Dorohedoro (2020), I argue that their anthropomorphic characters and disturbing narratives transgress once more into the realm of the opposite. Sharon Kinsella highlights cute style as “anti-social,” and a means to escape real life (1995). I pose the question: can it function as a form of social, ideological and political critique? Scott McCloud’s concept of iconic abstraction (1994) becomes then instrumental in analyzing these characters through the effects of the non-human representation in comic books, as a form of drawing attention to the essential “meaning” of that representation. I further argue that the Japanese animations above shed light on the dominant narratives in the public sphere while questioning their legitimacy, thus transforming kawaii in a subversive mechanism.

Arts

Kawaii culture and aesthetics are a peculiarity of contemporary Japan and move across mass media, impulse goods, creative industries, and juvenile tendencies. The concept, graphic styles, and commodities related to a kawaii culture are composite. This article, in its first part, outlines the theories and general features of this cultural trend in Japan and as it is framed in most western countries. In the second part, it also focuses on whether and how the concept and the related styles and commodities have found a place in Europe, with particular reference to Italy and France. These two countries, in fact, have been since the late 1970s the key markets in the Euro-American region for Japanese contemporary culture for youths, namely Japanese comics (generally called manga) and commercial animation (or anime). Anime and manga are, in effect, an integral part of the theoretical discourse on kawaii in the two markets considered, as it is discussed accordingly in the second part of the article. In its last section, the article addresses the impact of kawaii styles on youth cultures in Europe, which is, although limited, multidimensional: it has involved spontaneous drawings among children, a certain amateur and professional comics production, amateur and commercial animation, toys and a diverse merchandising, street art, and fashion design.

Japan has become overrun by friendly critters: (typically) soft, furry mascot-suited characters known as yuru kyara, or gotochi kyara, who exist in order to make their locality or sponsoring agency beloved and famous. Of special interest in this paper are those cases where the uncanny area or border between kyara and human identities is not only crossed but violated, as traits are appropriated across categories. Intersections appear between the usually asexual furry suited types and the doe-eyed girls of anime and manga fandom known as moe kyara. Not only are there a handful of these moe yuru kyara, but the non-moe yuru kyara may incorporate clearly human traits in their form or behavior, just as their aesthetic begins to permeate everyday life more deeply. Case studies also include unofficial yuru kyara, yuru kyara whose kigurumi mascot suits incorporate exposed human body parts, yuru kyara who violate character norms of behavior and speech (as described in Occhi 2012), and the various and gendered ways in which the yuru aesthetic currently intrudes into everyday life.

2019

The term kawaii, commonly translated into English as “cute” and “sweet”, has long been a part of Japanese culture. However, the modern concept of kawaii originates from a subculture associated with young schoolgirls in the 1970s. This conception of kawaii has since passed into the mainstream and can be seen in almost every aspect of Japanese culture: stylistic, visual, artistic, and even governmental. Because kawaii images evoke feelings of caring and nurturance, many private corporations have invested in the creation of cute merchandise that is based on the aesthetic qualities of kawaii/cuteness, such as infantile features, bright colors, and soft textures. This practice has not been limited to private corporations either. Governmental organizations are also making use of kawaii culture to increase the favorability and recognition of the services they provide. The present paper combines a review of the contemporary academic literature on the topic with original survey data in order...

Innovative Research in Japanese Studies, 2019

The term kawaii, commonly translated into English as “cute” and “sweet”, has long been a part of Japanese culture. However, the modern concept of kawaii originates from a subculture associated with young schoolgirls in the 1970s. This conception of kawaii has since passed into the mainstream and can be seen in almost every aspect of Japanese culture: stylistic, visual, artistic, and even governmental. Because kawaii images evoke feelings of caring and nurturance, many private corporations have invested in the creation of cute merchandise that is based on the aesthetic qualities of kawaii/cuteness, such as infantile features, bright colors, and soft textures. This practice has not been limited to private corporations either. Governmental organizations are also making use of kawaii culture to increase the favorability and recognition of the services they provide. The present paper combines a review of the contemporary academic literature on the topic with original survey data in order to introduce the meaning and significance of the word kawaii among Japanese women, its psychological characteristics, and its commercial and governmental applications.