Kawaii (かわいい [kaw͍ai.i], Means, "lovable", "cute", or "adorable"[1]) is the quality of cuteness in the context of Japanese culture.[2][3][4]
It has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms.[5]
The noun is Kawaisa (可愛さ?) (literally, "lovability", "cuteness" or "adorableness").
The term kawaii has taken on the secondary meanings of "cool",[6] "groovy",[6] "acceptable",[7] "desirable",[7] "charming"[8] and "non-threatening".[8]
Tomoyuki Sugiyama 杉山奉文 (Sugiyama Tomoyuki), author of Cool Japan, claims cute fashion in Japan can be traced back to the Edo Period with the popularity of netsuke.[7]
The rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing.[14] Many teenage girls began to write laterally using mechanical pencils.[14] These pencils produced very fine lines, as opposed to traditional Japanese writing that varied in thickness and was vertical.[14]
Also, the girls would write in big, round characters and they added
little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, smiley faces,
and letters of the Latin alphabet.[14]
During the 1980s, however, this new "cute" writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising.[14]
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