“If someone doesn’t find me cute, I want to know why because then I’ll work on it to get better at being cute.” – Yuri Ebihara
Cute is cool in Japan. Look anywhere and everywhere: Cartoon figures dangle from mobile phones, waitresses bow in frilly maid outfits, bows adorn bags, even police departments boast cuddly mascots.
These days, Japan Inc, known in the past for more serious products like Toyota cars and the Sony Walkman, is busy exporting the epitome of cute – bubble-headed Hello Kitty, Pokemon video games, the singing duo Puffy and the Tamagotchi virtual pet, just to name a few.
But the obsession with things cute – or “Kawaii” (pronounced Ka-wuh-EEH) in Japanese – has the world’s second biggest economy doing some soul-searching, wondering what exactly is making its people gravitate so frantically toward cuteness.
Gee: Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Tamagotchi virtual pet
How timely, NOT! (an expression as old and dated as the nicknacks above).
What next on the CU? Man lands on moon? Sweden exports cheap stylish furnishings? Can’t wait.
Are the Japanese overly obsessed with cute? No more than Americans are overly obsessed with big.
Seems like I read before that large heads and small eyes triggers an reflexive emotional response because it resembles a human infant. It’s a mechanism to ensure the infant is taken care of.
Tell me more about furnishing from Sweden!
Furnishings from Sweden in the U.S. usually come from Ikea at the obvious URL. Exporting the women is another matter entirely!
The Japanese really like cute stuff. Like electronic camera earwax cleaners.
Wow a Japanese person with decent teeth (Ebihara).
Oh I guess I’m overly obsessed with perfect teeth? LOL.
@8. “… decent teeth”
You are soooo right. I live in Tokyo, and am surrounded by cute women with lousy teeth. I even have a very good friend who is a dentist. His daughter’s teeth make Mr. Ed look good. But, orthodontics doesn’t even occur to him — a dentist!!
It’s a pedophilic male society. Sorry, but it’s the truth. Cute=young. By our standards they’re pervs.
And, and according the the American who owns the jlist.com company and blogs fairly frequently, crooked teeth in girls is considered cute over there. Orthodontia is mostly an American phenomon.