Why does japan like cute things

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It caused a lot of controversy and was even banned in many schools at that time. This writing style contributed to the nowadays popular kaomoji and emoji. The other main influence was… can you guess it? Hello Kitty. Born in , the Sanrio's most famous character has promoted kawaii culture not only in Japan but worldwide for many decades and has become THE symbol for Japanese kawaii culture.

Everything had to be Hello Kitty-fied! The interesting thing about kawaii is that it can be so simple, most if not all cute characters are often designed with disproportional big eyes and head, a tiny nose and hardly no facial expression. Some examples of these characters are Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma. Hello Kitty doesn't even have a mouth but brings and yet she brings joy to people all around the world!

If you think about it, other countries also have characters, mascots and other things that could be considered 'kawaii' such as sport mascots, cartoons like the power puff girls and of course Disney but it is obvious is that kawaii is much bigger in Japan! In many western countries cuteness is often associated with childish and not in a good way.

Even though this has been changing since the Hello Kitty boom for some people, especially guys it's still considered a taboo to like cute things in the west. In Japan it is way more accepted and even when it's not people will only judge you quietly instead of calling you out for it. Therefore it's fairly normal for let's say, a year old man to be into anime or idols who sing and perform in a in a westerners eyes' childish way.

Japan is a country with many contradictions, one of these being the strict and formal work culture vs the pink and frilly kawaii culture. Kawaii is a way for people to escape the stress and extreme pressure from work and school and to express themselves in fashion, art and lifestyle. If you have to behave professional all day one way would be to grab a drink at a bar, some people like to indulge themselves in cuteness!

Considering that Japanese people have to wear uniforms basically their whole life at work and at school it makes sense that they want to wear something completely different outside work. At the same time kawaii is also present in the work life, did you know that all prefectures in Japan and even companies have their own mascots?

Jane Lawson August 4, The phenomenon of cosplay is a significant aspect of Japanese pop culture which grew rapidly in the 's. What is Kawaii?

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