Kawaii

Kawaii favours big eyes and round faces, pastel colours, soft shapes, and an air of gentle, harmless innocence. It emerged as a distinct youth culture in the 1970s, partly through a craze for rounded, childish handwriting among schoolgirls, and was cemented when companies began attaching cute characters to everything. The most famous is Hello Kitty, born in 1974, but the instinct goes everywhere: banks, city governments, and even the police and the military field their own cuddly mascot characters to seem approachable. There is a specific pleasure the culture prizes here: iyashi (癒し), the sense of being soothed or healed, which cute things are felt to provide.

By now kawaii is one of Japan's most recognisable global exports, woven into anime and manga, Harajuku street fashion, character goods, and the mascots (yuru-kyara) that represent towns and products. It has its critics, who read the cult of the childlike as a retreat from adult seriousness, and its defenders, who see it as a warm, playful, inclusive sensibility. Either way, its reach is undeniable: cuteness in Japan is not confined to children or the private sphere but is a legitimate public style, a way for institutions and adults alike to present themselves as friendly and kind.