Pop Japan

What is Kawaii? It means cute in Japanese. The kawaii or the cuteness has been one of the prominent parts of Japanese culture that straddles across mannerisms, food, popular culture, toys, clothing, merchandise, houses and even traffic barriers. The word kawaii came from the phrase (Kawayushi) that means one's face is radiant or aglow. Kawaii was first mentioned in the early 19th century (Taisho era).

If you go to Tokyo and will see a bunny or hello kitty traffic barrier and wait in the bus stop and you would see buses with faces of rabbit or pandas. Watch an anime and you would come across the cute Pikachu (pocket monsters), Doraemon (anthropomorphic cat), Rilakkuma (relaxed bear), Hello kitty, Astro boy and Nobita (from Doraemon). Today Kawaii is prevalent in Japan as a visual and entertainment art as evidenced by animes, manga and j-pop group.

Photo by Ted Eytan

Under license by Creative Commons

Tags: Japanese culture, japanese tradition, kawaii, japanese cuteness, kawaii culture, hello kitty, doraemon, rilakkuma, nobita, pikachu, pokemon