How the Japanese Term Kawaii is Perceived Outside of Japan- A study in Israel

Milo, Shiri Lieber; Nittono, Hiroshi

doi:10.31124/advance.8087870.v1

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The research protocol was approved by the research ethics committee of the Graduate School of Language and Culture, Osaka University, Japan. A part of the survey that is not reported in this article was published by Lieber-Milo (2017), and a partial report of the Study 1 results was published by Lieber-Milo and Nittono (2019b). Supplemental material for this article is available online at https://osf.io/gcvzk.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pink purchasing: Interrogating the soft power of Japan’s kawaii consumption

Lieber-Milo

2021

Journal of Consumer Culture

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In Japan, high value and appreciation is ascribed to anything that features the physical characteristics considered to be kawaii (roughly translated as cute in English), particularly infants. As such, kawaii plays a significant role in Japanese popular consumption culture, especially for female consumers. This article applies mixed methods, including review of literature, questionnaires conducted among 692 Japanese women of varying ages and social status, and interviews with 12 Japanese company female employees to investigate perceived positive affective aspects associated with kawaii products, including their impact on emotional states and behavior. The cross-sectional study results reveal the importance of kawaii among Japanese women and positive aspects in consuming kawaii items; for working women, it was found that kawaii products help in dealing with stress and serve as a momentary gateway from the harsh world of everyday life to a romanticized world of one’s childhood and for younger women serve as a fashion statement.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pink purchasing: Interrogating the soft power of Japan’s kawaii consumption

Lieber-Milo

2021

Journal of Consumer Culture

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“…Since we only conducted our experiment with Japanese participants, generality and cultural differences should be considered. Even though kawaii is an example of a typical element of Japanese culture and such concepts have been spreading worldwide, past studies reported cultural differences about kawaii feelings between China and Japan [40] and Israeli and USA [41,42]. These studies compared the perceived differences of kawaii to Japan, although they also reported that these other cultures held positive views of kawaii/cute concepts.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 98%

Kawaii emotions in presentations: Viewing a physical touch affects perception of affiliative feelings of others toward an object

et al. 2022

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We investigated how a presenter’s touching behaviors of an object during its explanation affect the observer’s perceived feelings of kawaii, a Japanese word that means “cute,” toward the object and the presenter. We conducted a face-to-face experiment with a robot presenter as well as a web survey experiment with both robot and human presenters. Based on the phenomenon that people more firmly touch an object when their perceived kawaii feeling is overwhelmingly strong, we investigated the effects of touching behavior with emphasized styles. First, we conducted a face-to-face experiment with a robot presenter where participants observed their presentations about an object to explain its characteristics. The results showed that participants who observed the robot’s touch behaviors perceived the object to be more kawaii and thought that the robot also felt the object was more kawaii. On the other hand, the results did not effectively show any increase in the participant’s feelings of kawaii toward the robot or the emphasized touch style. Based on these results, we next conducted a web survey experiment to investigate whether such knowledge about touching effects is applicable for human presenters. The results resembled those obtained when the presenter was a robot, i.e., viewing a touch behavior increased both the presenter’s perceived feelings of kawaii toward the object and the participant’s feelings of kawaii toward it. These results suggest that viewing the touch behaviors of others influenced the perceived emotional feelings toward both presenters and objects.

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“…This study will provide a different perspective on the meaning of the word cute in previous studies [5], especially in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to examine the dimensions of aesthetic of cuteness to better understand the role of mascot design in the cute style through affective dimensions, language dimensions, and design dimensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Aesthetic of Cuteness Dimensions in Malang City Mascot

Novica

Hidayat

Sutrisno

2020

KSS

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Osi and Ji are Malang City mascots made with coherent design procedures. They represent a particular identity to appeal to the target audience. This paper examines the aesthetics of cuteness that synergize between the dimensions of affection, language, and design in the city’s mascot. The study is based on qualitative research with observations and interviews conducted between April and September 2018. The affective dimension of Osi and Ji is linked with their anthropomorphism. It creates a high level of intimacy for the audience. The design dimensions of Osi and Ji are determined by the ‘cuteness’ design principles, especially the use of basic shapes such as circles, vibrant colors, proportions, and poses. These three dimensions can function as a guide to design a city mascot character to have a strong visual impact. Keywords: Aesthetic of Cuteness, Character Design, City Mascot

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How the Japanese Term Kawaii is Perceived Outside of Japan- A study in Israel

Abstract: This study illuminates how Israelis define and treat the Japanese term kawaii<br>

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Pink purchasing: Interrogating the soft power of Japan’s kawaii consumption

Pink purchasing: Interrogating the soft power of Japan’s kawaii consumption

Kawaii emotions in presentations: Viewing a physical touch affects perception of affiliative feelings of others toward an object

Aesthetic of Cuteness Dimensions in Malang City Mascot

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