And they do it a lot. Kawaii is inescapable in Japan, where I have lived since the 1990s, so the global rise of adorable content online has not surprised me. As of the time of writing, 676 million ...

In Japan, ‘cute’ is a big deal. Their own word for it, kawaii (“ka-why-ee”), is more of an ethos than an adjective. Shops and billboards are filled with big-eyed fluffy figures.

"Cute" or "kawaii" in Japanese is the theme word of the Tokyo Girls Collection. Neither Saori nor Mie could remember how many times they invoked the word during at the show. "She says kawaii for ...

ONLY THE MOST devoted scholar would attempt a definitive archive of cuteness and all its manifestations in Japan. The cute is everywhere because life is everywhere; in the animism that underlies S ...

Sanrio solidifies its dominance in the world of anime-style mascots in a new Japanese "Gen Z" survey ranking popular trends in media and pop culture.

Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of “kawaii,” which is Japanese for “cute” but also connotes a lovable or adorable essence. Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other ...

Born from the trauma of World War II, this bow-wearing cartoon icon became a powerful tool for diplomacy, reinvention, and cultural soft power. Dressed in a kimono, Hello Kitty performs a ...

Cute—"Kawaii" in local parlance—wears many guises in Japan. There's old-school kawaii, embodied by the helpless, mouthless gaze of Hello Kitty. There's the newer guy-cute, manifest by masses ...

Richard Magarey, better known as Ladybeard, is a cross-dressing pro wrestler and a heavy metal singer from Adelaide who’s made it big in Japan. Ladybeard is a Japan-based Australian wrestler ...