(By the time Westerners adopted the cute life, Japan had a wealth of kawaii animal characters to offer.) “UwU” — the emoticon pronounced “oo-woo,” representing a smitten face that would ...

"She is so cute ... uniforms swaddle newborns in Hello Kitty blankets. Speaking of births, Hello Kitty was born in 1974 at ...

In Japan, ‘cute’ is a big deal. Their own word for it, kawaii (“ka-why-ee”), is more of an ethos than an adjective. Shops and billboards are filled with big-eyed fluffy figures.

Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of “kawaii,” which is Japanese for “cute” but also connotes a lovable or adorable essence. Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other ...

He dubs his genre as Kawaii Metal (or ‘Cute Metal’), which mixes some elements from heavy metal and J-Pop. One of the pioneers of this genre is a Japanese idol trio Babymetal, who just wrapped ...