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I was at Costco the other day and I heard a girl scream, “Kawaii” (cute) at a plain white beer cooler. In Japan it’s impossible to escape the glare of Hello Kitty or the various wide-eyed manga characters.

With this in mind, I read an excellent article in the Japan Times about the kawaii phenomenon regarding the Tokyo Girl’s Collection 2007 Fashion Show

“Cute” — or “kawaii” in Japanese — is the theme word of the Tokyo Girls Collection. Neither Saori nor Mie could remember how many times they invoked the word during at the show.

“She says ‘kawaii’ for absolutely anything!” Miyuki Kidoguchi said of her 18-year-old daughter Tomomi whom she brought to the show. “Sometimes I think my daughter uses the word in the wrong way.”

…

Sociology professor Nobuyoshi Kurita of Musashi University in Tokyo, who has studied the “kawaii” phenomenon, said the word can also imply “acceptable” or “desirable”.

The rest of the article is an interesting read and helps shed light on why in the proximity of young women, you can hear, “kawaii!” fifty times a minute.

Link