Kawaii is the Japanese word for “cute”, but in Japan it is much more than an adjective. It is a culture, an industry worth billions, a form of street fashion and even a tool of diplomacy. Kawaii means rounded shapes, pastel colours, characters with big heads and tiny mouths, and a soft, playful approach to everything from stationery to train-station signs. It has shaped global pop culture, from Hello Kitty and Pokémon to the pastel accessories in your local mall.
What is kawaii?
As an aesthetic, kawaii covers anything sweet, innocent, small and lovable. In fashion, it ranges from simple pastel outfits with character accessories to the extravagant street styles of Tokyo’s Harajuku district. In design, it appears in mascots, packaging and public information. Kawaii is not only for children: adults in Japan carry character key chains, use cute stationery at work, and buy kawaii homeware without embarrassment.
Where it came from
Historians often trace modern kawaii culture to the 1970s, when Japanese teenage girls began writing in a rounded, childlike handwriting decorated with hearts and faces, to the alarm of some teachers. Companies quickly noticed the appetite for cute things. In 1974, the company Sanrio introduced Hello Kitty, a small white cat with a red bow and no mouth, who would become one of the most valuable characters in the world. Japanese pop idols of the 1980s, with sweet images and frilly outfits, spread the style further.
In the 1990s, the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo became a stage for young people’s wildest kawaii fashion. Styles such as decora (covered in plastic clips and accessories), Lolita (doll-like, Victorian-inspired dresses), and fairy kei (pastel 1980s nostalgia) flourished, documented in the street-style magazine FRUiTS. Artist Sebastian Masuda’s shop 6%DOKIDOKI became a centre of the colourful scene, and he later created the visual world of singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, whose 2011 video “PonPonPon” made Harajuku kawaii famous worldwide. Pokémon, launched in 1996, carried kawaii characters into homes everywhere.
Japan has even used kawaii in its cultural diplomacy: in 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named young fashion figures as “kawaii ambassadors” to promote Japanese pop culture abroad.
The codes
- Clothes: pastel dresses and skirts, oversized character sweatshirts, frills, bows, layered tutus, knee socks.
- Accessories: hair clips, plush key chains, character bags, heart and star jewellery, animal-ear hats.
- Shoes: platform shoes, Mary Janes, colourful sneakers.
- Objects: stationery, stickers, character mugs, plushies, gacha capsule toys, decorated phones.
- Colours: baby pink, mint, lavender, baby blue, cream and white.
See the mood
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The references
Characters: Hello Kitty and the Sanrio family, Pikachu, Rilakkuma, Sumikko Gurashi, Totoro from Studio Ghibli.
People and places: Harajuku and Takeshita Street, FRUiTS magazine, Sebastian Masuda, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
Art: Takashi Murakami’s “Superflat” movement, which explored the cute and the unsettling in Japanese pop culture.
Why it caught on
Cute things make people feel calm, affectionate and protective, and kawaii offers small daily doses of that feeling. In Japan, it also offered young people, especially young women, a way to express themselves outside strict social expectations. Around the world, the spread of anime, manga, video games and K-pop has made kawaii familiar to millions, including a big community of young fans in India, where kawaii stationery and anime merchandise have become hugely popular.
The debate
Some critics argue that kawaii culture encourages women to appear childlike and powerless. Others see it as a quiet rebellion against adult seriousness. There have also been debates about Western celebrities using Harajuku style as a costume, most famously in the mid-2000s when a pop star toured with a group of Japanese dancers billed as “Harajuku Girls”. More recent offshoots such as yami kawaii (“sick cute”), which mixes cute imagery with themes of illness and sadness, show that kawaii can also be used to express difficult feelings.
How to wear it now
A simple way in is through accessories: a character bag charm, pastel clips, cute socks. Pair a pastel knit with a pleated skirt or wide trousers, or wear an oversized character sweatshirt with platform shoes. At home or work, kawaii stationery and desk accessories are an easy, joyful start.
Where it is now
Harajuku’s street-fashion heyday has passed, and FRUiTS stopped printing in 2017, but kawaii is stronger than ever as a global consumer culture. Sanrio characters regularly top popularity charts, collectible toys are booming, and cute design is everywhere from phone cases to fashion collaborations.
Related aesthetics
Kidcore · Soft Girl · Coquette · Y2K · Scene
Learn more: hear from more voices
Mina Le on Japan’s kawaii industry, and a history of Harajuku, the street where kawaii fashion came alive.
Read more
- What is Kawaii? — Art in Context. An art-history guide to Japan’s culture of cute.
Sources: cultural histories of kawaii and Sanrio; histories of Harajuku street fashion and FRUiTS magazine; Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs “kawaii ambassadors” (2009). Videos are embedded from YouTube and remain the work of their creators. Linked articles belong to their publishers.
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