You can trace the word “kawaii” all the way back to the start of the 11th century, when an early form of it, “kawayushi,” which at the time translated more to “having pitiable qualities,” appeared in ...

Kawaii. You hear it in anime, you hear it on TV shows, and you hear it on the streets of Japan, where the word is spoken by young and old alike. With people around the world growing up on Japanese ...

It’s no secret that Japan is seriously into cuteness. Accordingly, in most situations, deeming something kawaii, or cute, is seen as high praise. This is especially true when it comes to women.

Editor’s Note: Joshua Paul Dale is a professor at Tokyo Gakugei University. He is co-editor of “The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness”, and the editor of “Cute Studies,” a special issue of the East ...

Hui-Ying Kerr received funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) from 2010 - 2013 as part of her PhD research on Japan in the 1980s. This is a true story. One Saturday night, I ...

With digital overload and constant stress dominating life, soft colours and whimsical objects work like visual therapy. That’s what Kawaii interiors aims to do. When GS Shruti (@shrustudies), a ...

Alongside "photobomb", one of the new words added to the Collins English dictionary this week was "kawaii". Yet unlike photobomb, selfie or onesie, you're unlikely to know what kawaii means unless you ...

J-Pop has been popular in Asia for years. But a new star, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has found global fame with her reinvention of ‘kawaii’ culture, Mariko Oi reports. A room full of children's toys, a dancing ...

Culture of ‘cute’ scores an international victory over samurai and ninja She’s an internationally acclaimed superstar who accessorizes with a colorful bow clipped near her left ear. Her image appears ...

Named for the Japanese term for the sound of an excited heart beating, Doki Doki Kawaii Shop, in all its pastel glory, sits on Lakewood’s Madison Avenue. Kawaii refers to the Japanese culture of ...