i agree with buteos, and i think that drawing parallels with south korea is a good observation too. the struggle against conformity is a huge issue in both cultures, but i'm not sure pointing the finger at "kawaii culture" makes sense any more than blaming carl's jr ads for causing the sexualization of women - i feel like the cause and effect are getting flipped around i think the western viewpoint on kawaii stuff wants to equate it with sexualization and that's not super accurate in a lot of cases unless you think rilakkuma is sexy, it's more making things childish/helpless, which of course can be paired with sexualization but definitely isn't all the time: that kind of aesthetic is a way to recede from how shitty the grind is in japan more than anything else i feel like in a less drastic way than NEETing