| The Japanese economy experienced rapid
growth in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of successful industrialization, and
by the 1970s has become the second largest in the world. It did not take long
for this drastic increase in national affluence to benefit consumers. Wages
rose significantly due to a sustained growth in demand for labor as enterprises
were expanding their businesses. Consequently a boom in private consumption
followed beginning in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, wealthier households
translated to greater spending power of teenagers, which frequently was
capitalized upon by producers who were sensitive enough to keep themselves
informed about the phenomena current to the realm of the youthful. Sanrio was
the pioneer company in the business of cuteness-oriented products. Presented
with an unexploited profit opportunity of huge potential, Sanrio began to
produce the so-called fancy goods, such as stationary and diaries ornamented
with cute characters, which are specifically targeted at teenage female
students. The fancy goods industry took off from there, and has since then
grown substantially to eventually represent a significant component of the
nation¡¦s gross output. In 1990, private final consumption expenditure totaled
249 trillion yen (Statistics Bureau of Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications), of which 10 trillion yen (Kinsella 226), or, four percent, was
generated by the fancy goods business.
The rise of cute culture in particular demonstrated the fact that
popular culture does not necessarily originate from the supply side of the
consumerism framework. Rather, it suggested that youngsters were playing an
increasingly influential role in shaping popular culture, for instance, by
collectively setting standards that are essential to being cute, or, kawaii.
In modern Japanese the term kawaii has the meanings of ¡§lovely,¡¨
¡§charming,¡¨ ¡§sweet,¡¨ ¡§dear,¡¨ ¡§darling,¡¨ ¡§pretty,¡¨ ¡§nice,¡¨ ¡§cute,¡¨ as well as
¡§little¡¨ and ¡§tiny¡¨ (http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/). Yet, as pointed out by
Sharon Kinsella, the word also remotely resembles ¡§pitiful¡¨ even in the modern
sense. A majority of the fancy goods rely on cute cartoon characters to trigger
sales, as it has become evident that the cuteness present in such characters
exerts a special appeal to young ladies so strong that fanatic followings
emerge. A cute character possesses several characteristics that are usually
shared by the rest of its kind in that it is small in size, clumsy in
appearance, soft around the edge, speechless, and expressionless. These
features combine to constitute cartoon characters in a way such that they
universally convey a childish impression to their viewers. Cute style initially
started as a youth phenomenon, but over the years has developed into a culture
which transcends age barriers, as the earliest fans are approaching their 30s
or 40s. In fact, cuteness has become synonymous to the nation itself to many
foreigners. If the general attitude towards reverting to childishness in other
culture is of ambiguity, acting childish is almost a behavior celebrated in Japan, as
cuteness is often interpreted as a virtue or a form of beauty among the younger
generations.
The earliest trace of the cuteness phenomenon can be dated back to
the early 1970s, when an abundance of teenagers, especially women, began to
adopt a new style of handwriting. Characters were deliberately written in an
obscure way so that they were hard to comprehend. Not surprisingly, cute
handwriting displayed some qualities, which characterized the cute cartoon
figures, in its ambiguity and rounded shape. Through a ¡§romanization of
Japanese text,¡¨ teenagers were ¡§rebelling against traditional Japanese culture
and identifying with European culture which they obviously imagined to be more
fun.¡¨ (Kinsella 224) As was with the case of the Bosozoku youth culture in the
1980s, a sense of oppression among young people prompted them to define a new
set of standards--in this case, a new language distinct from the traditional
one--according to which they could act freely within their own social
construct.
In roughly the same period, the shojo manga genre gained tremendous
popularity among young girls, and eventually young people in general, as a new
breed of young female artists, some of whom high school students, were coming
into the scene. They were able to create ordinary characters, a high school
girl, for instance, who experience somewhat extraordinary lives nevertheless,
whom the readers could identify themselves with, thus expanding manga¡¦s appeal
to older readers. The main attraction of shojo manga lies in its emphases on
romance as well as emotional development of the heroines. Be it stories of
school life, science fiction, fantasy, or history, romantic plots that are not
utterly impossible yet unlikely to happen in real life necessarily play an
important role in them. Intriguing storylines incorporated with detailed
personal depictions of characters have readers constantly entrenched in a
visionary, romantic, and almost utopian world of fantasy. The success of shojo
manga further reinforces the assessment that popular culture was increasingly
influenced by fashionable trends among young people, although the publishing,
multimedia, and advertising industries played a vital part as well in
popularizing the genre by distributing manga magazines and paperback volumes.
Meanwhile traditional arts and crafts that were supposed to be the heart and
soul of Japanese culture were pushed away from the mainstream.
In the escapist sense, fascinations with shojo manga and cuteness
are counterparts that together provide diversity to the dull lives of young
people by allowing them to engage with the imaginative, which is also connected
with a romanticized notion of childhood.
¡§[C]ute style was all about acting
childish in an effort to partake some of childhood¡¦s legendary simplicity,
happiness, and emotional warmth. Underpinning cute style are the neo-romantic
notions of childhood as an entirely separate, and hence unmaligned, pure sphere
of human life. In fact, the general belief that childhood is ¡¥another world,¡¦
in some ways an ideal world, has been the dominant perception of childhood
throughout the developed world for most of the twentieth century.¡¨ (Kinsella
241)
It is no exception
in Japan, where industrialization has gradually taken its toll on the
Japanese people. While raising the overall standard of living by a great
extent, the ¡§spiritual poverty¡¨ among the population has intensified, leading
to an idealized re-evaluation of childhood and the pre-industrial era, as well
as an emerging sense of nostalgia for childhood and country life. The in theory
egalitarian education system in Japan is designed so that people are trained to
participate in cooperative work in which no one is expected to stand out as
particularly efficient or capable. In an environment where the accepted work
ethic is clearly defined and expectation the same for everyone, it is the ones
who are handicapped or incapable of complying that stand out. However, Japan is
unique in cultivating a society in which people draw envy, popularity, and even
praise, especially from young people, precisely according to their apparent
weakness and dependence-- qualities associated with children. Reverting to
childishness could be interpreted as one¡¦s refusal to shoulder an adult¡¦s
responsibilities. Once adolescents become adults, they are obliged to pay back
society in various ways. By opting not to grow up, one is able to retain
his/her relatively free state as a child as well as rebel against social norms.
Protesting by resorting to being infantile is a distinct feature found in the
Japanese society.
The effect of industrialization on society
could only be partially seen through the study of cute culture. In the
concluding remarks of his analysis on Sazae-san, Chibi Maruko-chan,
and Crayon Shin-chan, all family-oriented anime, William Lee
insightfully points out the connection between popular culture and nostalgia
for the past:
¡§That the show¡¦s
[Crayon Shin-chan¡¦s] popularity regularly falls short of that enjoyed by
anime that present nostalgic images of the Japanese family ¡K suggests that
viewers as a whole are drawn more to the ideal than to the real, and that one
of the most important functions of popular culture in Japan is not to reflect
or examine contemporary society but to provide cultural consumers with a chance
to escape the present by identifying with a nostalgic and less troubling past.¡¨
(Lee 202)
Set in the postwar
era, the family depicted in Sazae-san is composed of three generations
living together, hardly resembling a typical modern family. Moreover, the Isono
family lives in a time when finding enough food is a concern. How this could be
¡§less troubling¡¨ to the modern audience seems somewhat absurd. Perhaps it
suggests that the viewers would rather face uncertainty to survival than being
spiritually deprived by rapid industrialization. The Isono family is presented
as an ideal model of any typical Japanese family. But it is obvious that
viewers are aware of the difference between ideology and reality. Clearly a
minority in modern society, watching the show induces a reminiscence of the
good old days among Japanese viewers prone to nostalgia. Given the appeal of
the past has to the Japanese people in general, it makes sense for Chibi
Maruko-chan and Crayon Shin-chan to trail Sazae-san in
popularity, despite their more realistic portrayal of family life.
If the difference between the respective families depicted in Sazae-san
and Crayon Shin-chan highlights Japan¡¦s development from a war-torn
nation to the second largest economy in the world, Tetsuwan Atom and Pikachu,
which were created roughly 40 years apart, through their easily distinguishable
characteristics or qualities, show how far Japan has deviated from its postwar
spirit in a few decades¡¦ time. Whereas hard work, efficiency, and optimism
defined Atom, cartoon characters today are dominated by the ever-emerging
duplicates of the cute, ¡§escapist¡¨ prototype. Pikachu in particular, is a
classic example of cuteness packaged in a ¡§hyperconsumerist form that is
technologically advanced and nomadically portable.¡¨ (Allison 35) Through the
video game, TV series, manga, and the card game, Pokémon was able to reach out to a diverse
audience. Working in parallel with the multimedia was apparently the production
of related fancy goods, which were increasingly commoditized due to the spread
of cute culture.
Looking at the Japanese people¡¦s obsession with cuteness from an
outsider perspective, one might find the extent to which cuteness-related goods
are consumed hard to justify, especially something as inconsequential as a
bunch of imaginary characters. It should be noted, however, that young people
who consume cuteness and act cute are not trying to be fashionable. Rather,
they consider it natural to act in such ways. The idea underlying this thought
is that once individuals enter adulthood, they are forced to cover up their
natural personalities, although they do not simply disappear.
¡§[T]he original childlike innocence of each individual, rather than
disappearing forever, was still present in some naïve individuals and could be
glimpsed occasionally in the gestures, expressions and attitudes of almost any
kind of person. Cute childlike behavior was considered genuine and pure ¡V
implying that the experiences and social relations acquired after maturation
were considered to form a false, shallow, external layer.¡¨ (Kinsella 240)
This idea is somewhat echoed by anthropologist Nakazawa Shinichi,
whose opinion is rephrased by Anne Allison:
¡§Just as the wild imagination of children get tamed when they become
adults, society¡¦s imagination has been tamed by the process of
industrialization. Yet even in its postmodernity ¡K Japan has
managed to hold onto the ¡¥primitive unconscious¡¦ in its play industry, whose
products capture children¡¦s imagination.¡¨ (Allison 46)
As much as the cuteness advocates would like to associate childhood
with virtue, and adulthood with hypocrisy, their visions are highly aesthetic
and idealized as all the negative aspects of childhood are negated. Ironically,
denying the existence of something that exists is so hypocritical in nature.
Nonetheless, young Japanese people are strongly delighted by cuteness, so much
so that over time, cuteness¡¦s appeal has spread to all levels of the Japanese
population. The Hello Kitty fandom, for instance, is comprised of diverse age
groups. ¡§The fans of Kitty, when I first started drawing her in 1980, were
around 10 years old,¡¨ said Yuko Yamaguchi, designer of Kitty. ¡§Today, the
average age of core Hello Kitty fans, I think, is about 34.¡¨ (Otake)
The term
¡§healing¡¨ has surfaced to refer to ¡§cute character goods and of interactive
products such as Pokémon
that are seen as having the power to relieve loneliness and reduce stress.¡¨
(Allison 46) Indeed, interaction was what Tajiri Satoshi had in mind when he
created Pokémon.
The nature of the game encourages players to get in touch with other players to
exchange information, thus promoting social interaction. Moreover, when people
call Pikachu ¡§kawaii,¡¨ more than just admiring the product, they are also
attempting to reach out to others through the cuteness channel, which has
become a universal phenomenon. In addition to ¡§healing¡¨ by connecting to
cuteness, there exists a nostalgia channel as well, through which the
participants are able to escape the present. Revisiting the past presumably in
childhood, rural life of the pre-industrial era, and the ¡§typical¡¨ Japanese
family during the postwar years provide great relief to teenager and older
viewers alike. Works which belong to the nostalgia ¡§healing¡¨ category include Sazae-san
and Chibi Maruko-chan mentioned earlier, and Miyazaki Hayao¡¦s My
Neighbor Totoro, etc. Even Akira, despite its extremely dark
portrayal of a postmodern society, in depicting the bosozoku gangs as
autonomous individuals who can survive outside of the social framework probably
has the heavily oppressed salarymen and the exam-ladened students dreaming
about abandoning the society once and for all, thus freeing themselves.
With all
the stress and loneliness relieving purposes made possible by the ¡§healing¡¨
channels, cute culture, and other elements of popular culture for that matter,
seem to have earned themselves a more positive connotation. Yet critics would
be quick to point out that the cute culture ultimately is driven by consumerism
and commoditization of trivial things, which, as it turns out, is exactly what
the infamous Otaku culture is all about. ¡§This healing ¡K comes embedded in
consumer fetishism of epic proportions. In the millennial marketplace of
cuteness, images such as those of Pikachu and Doraemon appear everywhere, on
anything, in never ending editions.¡¨ (Allison 46-47) Perhaps there is no better
example of consumer fetishism than the Otaku, who are constantly exploited by
big businesses for their unmatched obsessions with various anime-, manga-, and
video game-related products. According to Murakami Takashi, a Japanese pop
artist who has achieved international recognition, the Otaku community
originated from science fiction fans, who are not necessarily fans of anime. In
fact, any kind of fanatics can be called Otaku. Since science fiction, cosmic
warfare in particular, is often presented in animation form, hence the
correlation between science fiction and anime fans. When one is trying
vigorously to promote the positive aspects brought to society by the cute
culture in social, psychological, and economic terms, being labeled as Otaku
certainly will not help the cause.
The general perception of Otaku as nerds who alienate themselves
from social interaction surfaced in the 1980s. But the Otaku culture could be
traced back to as early as the 1970s when Space
Battleship Yamato became a major hit among sci-fi fans. The rise of cute
culture, however, has gradually transformed the composition of the Otaku
community. By the mid-1990s, the mainstream position of the science fiction
genre had been replaced by a new craze for the kawaii (cute), the moe (girly
anime), and yuru chara (kitsch
characters). On one hand, the old Otaku are more outgoing, sociable. They also
interact with producers on a frequent basis. Through mediums like doujinshi
(fan-published magazines), cosplay (costume play), old otaku are capable of
influencing the producers, or even participating in the industry themselves. On
the other hand, in cute culture, men are usually on the receiving end of what
women have to offer. Perhaps this is why the new Otaku are more self-oriented
and anti-social, preferring to spend time with their imaginary girlfriends
rather than interact with real human beings. As acknowledged by Murakami, Otaku
are discriminated against in society. He uses the suppression of the Aum Cult
as an example, whose members were connected to the Otaku culture.
¡§Most of the newly developed cults consist of people like the otaku
because they are so severely discriminated and alienated that they either
choose to join these cults or create new cults in their desperate search for
salvation. Then, when I consider what Japanese culture is like, the answer is
that it all is subculture.¡¨ (http://www.jca-online.com/murakami.html)
Murakami sees that as the reason to the lack of innovation in modern
Japanese art. According to his standard, his own work is not new either,
because, after all, they center around the cute and otaku cultures.
If
Japanese culture is indeed all about subculture, then supposedly the spheres of
cuteness, otaku, and of any other minorities for that matter, can survive just
fine, albeit being labeled as outcasts in a postmodern society. In the mean
time, even although the subcultures have been doing their part in revitalizing
social interactions and a recessionary economy, their positions in society are
at best ambivalent.
Works consulted
Allison, Anne.
¡§Cuteness as Japan's Millennial
Product¡¨ in , Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon
Duke University Press, 2004: pp. 34-49.
Kinsella, Sharon.
¡§Cuties in Japan¡¨ in , Women,
Media, and Consumption in Japan Univ. of Hawai'i Press, 1995: pp.
220-254.
Lee, Andrew.
¡§Kamikaze kittens Childlike charm and gratuitous violence are often entangled
in contemporary Japanese Art, reflecting a neurotic nation that has been unable
to grow up since the atom bomb¡¨ Financial
Times (London). July 9, 2005
Lee, William. ¡§From
Sazae-san to Crayon Shin-chan: family anime, social change, and nostalgia in Japan¡¨ in , Japan Pop! Inside the
World of Japanese Popular Culture M.E. Sharpe, 2000: pp.
186-203.
Otake, Tomoko. ¡§The
cat¡¦s whiskers of Kawaii¡¨ The Japan Times, October 24, 2004.
Standish, Isolde.
¡§Akira, postmodernism, and resistance¡¨ in , The Worlds of Japanese Popular
Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries, and Global Cultures Cambridge University Press, 1998: pp.
56-75.
http://www.jca-online.com/murakami.html
http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/03-01.xls |
