The Cutes Behind Popular Culture Japan

The Cutes behind popular culture Japan

General topic: Japanese cute culture

Question: Why cute culture can be so adopted by Japanese? How is cute culture represented in Japanese daily life and symbolized ? The cute culture in recent years really is a “good culture” for the growing path of Japanese youth?

The world youth has be fascinated by Japanese popular culture including manga, Hello Kitty and charming and trendy products, such as with Japanese girl’s makeup skills. You can easily distinguish the fashion from Japan between other area as it’s so unique and innovative. Within the Japanese popular culture, the phenomenon of cuteness has become the index of the fashion among Japanese teenagers in popular culture, as you can see groups of young women in pink colors from head to toe and carrying with labeled Hello Kitty items- a cute Japanese kitten character since 1974 on the street or wearing a makeup which can change the facial ratio more like an infant (with a big eye and white skin). However as Brian Bremner has pointed out “ how cuteness in Japan is more than a fashion statement -- it's something closer to an aesthetic value, something that uniquely defines Japanese youth culture. In the U.S., it seems, we push kids to be grown up in a hurry. “ The cute culture in recent years really is a “good culture” for the growing path of Japanese youth? And why the cute culture is so adapted by Japanese popular culture? The purpose of this essay is to discover why cuteness can be so easily adapted in Japan. And also a discussion of the meaning of cute culture whether it is now shifted away from the original meaning itself and if this is really appropriate with moral issues and the normal children growing process?

The original meaning of “kawaii” is the English word for “cuteness” and is defined in Lady Murasaki’s “The tale of Genji”, meaning pity and empty . More recently the definition made from Sharon Kinsella "Cuties in Japan", has defined cuteness in the Japanese term “kawaii” being a combination of the meaning of sweet, pure, weakness adorable and inexperienced social behavior and physical appearance. From the definition Sharon made, the meaning of “Kawaii” is similar to the ideal women under patriarchal society in Japan in the past. Women were treated as accessories of men and lacked of self position.

Japan is an obvious male dominated society, as men occupy nearly 95 per cent of positions of authority in business and politics in Japan as opposed to in many western countries its around 60 to 70 per cent.

There are major two reasons why Japanese is a male dominated society, one is the difference of physical powers between men and women. Japan was a rice orientated culture, it required lots of physical man power, women then has less advantages in agriculture area than men does.