ABSTRACT
So ubiquitous is Kawaii in Japanese life, the phenomenon naturally attracts the same kind of debates as is normally found in the critical analysis of other popular form of cultures and, therefore, many of the definitions and characteristics defining other popular cultural phenomenon can also be applied to it. Thus, the definitions made by the one of Britain’s greatest post-war cultural historians-Raymond Williams (1974) of the four meanings of the word “popular,” are particularly useful in examining Kawaii culture. Williams breaks up the four meanings of “popular” as follows: firstly, popular refers to objects or practices that are well liked by a lot of people; secondly, popular denies the products of popular culture that are judged inferior and unworthy; thirdly, popular culture is everything left over after what constitutes “elite” or “high” culture has been identified and, finally it is explicitly commercial.
