Kawaii Culture - Asia has overtaken the US as centre for cool!

When I was young, almost everything "cool" was from the USA. Cartoon characters, TV shows, movies, celebrities, wrestling superstars... but the best video games were mostly from Japan. Now the world has changed and Asia is leading the world.

K-pop has become super popular in the music world. K-pop groups such as Seventeen, BTS, Stray Kids and TWICE sell music all over the world. This is well funded by the South Korean government.

Anime and manga from Japan are now read and watched not only by people in Japan. Demon slayer (鬼滅の刃), ONE PIECE and Chainsaw Man (チェンソーマン) have all sold very well in the US (among other countries). When I was young, almost all the popular comic books were from the USA. Now more and more Japanese manga are being sold internationally. US comic book sales had been going down from 2016 to 2021(1).

In the UK, toy shops were dominated by American culture. Comic and cartoon characters were everywhere. Today, there is a big shift towards Asian culture. In the UK now there are many shops selling Chinese figues such as Skullpanda (スカルパンダ), Korean corn dogs, kimchijeon (pancakes), kimchi, bubble tea (tapioca tea), Japanese fuwa fuwa pancakes and even mochi.

Kenji (2), a UK store started by a Malaysian student, is a store that sells many kawaii Asian products around the country. There are ten stores at the moment but the owner hopes to have many more stores within 10 years. The shoppers at these stores are not only children, but also adults and both male and female. The pull of kawaii has increased.

I love that Asian things have become popular across the world. When I was young it was impossible to get things from Japan in my hometown. Now, they seem to be available everywhere!