WEBVTT - Yuru-chara: Japanese Mascots, Part 1 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.680 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:16.800 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.520 And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff to 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:21.560 Blow Your Mind, we're going to be starting a series, 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.599 probably a couple of episodes on a cultural phenomenon, the 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.680 wobbly mascots of Japan known as urukiara. Rob what got 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:33.400 you interested in urukiara? 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:38.600 Well, my family we recently visited Japan and it was 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:44.600 an amazing experience, highly recommended, you know, full of culinary, historic, natural, cultural, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.360 and pop culture discoveries. We tried to cover just about 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.400 everything during our time there, from you know, Shinto shrines 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:56.080 and historic landmarks to Ghibli Park, the Tokyo Pokemon Center, 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.000 and you know, as with any visit to another country 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.160 and another culture, there's so much fun and wondered to 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.040 be had in the little things. And I think one 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.480 of our favorite pastimes, especially as we traveled around in 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.959 the country and especially as we use public transportation, was 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:16.280 the endless parade of these curious mascots, these uru kiyara, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.400 and it was just you know, every time we would 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.600 encounter another one, we were like, oh, look, at this 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.840 little one. We've got to and we have to research it, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.160 you know, bust out our phones. Once we were able 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.039 to find ourselves seated or stationary on the train, figure 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.800 out who this individual is, what they represent, it was 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:35.280 a great deal of additional fun. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.559 Now we'll go into a lot more detail about what 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.640 yurukiarra are in the forms they take in these episodes, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.720 but generally they are characters that can appear in the 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:51.120 form of two D representations like drawings or also in 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.960 costumed embodied form. Were you mostly just seeing them like 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.520 on signs and in media and stuff, or did you 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.320 actually come across physically costumed eruqia. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:05.080 Are Sadly, we never encountered any physically costumed mascot character 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:11.239 as Kiara mostly, I mean exclusively, we're encountering them on 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:18.639 informational signs sometimes you know, promotional material and so forth, 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.800 and very rarely on merchandise. I didn't encounter a lot 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.000 a lot of them that were heavily merged, though some 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.720 of them are as we'll discuss, but yeah, it's like 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:29.799 oftentimes would be like in the midst of going from 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.960 point A to point B and momentarily being distracted, but 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:39.440 also momentarily being you know, getting an emotional boost from 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.080 seeing one of these little cute characters and you know, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.960 and figuring out what they're trying to say to you. 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.080 Yeah. So, oh, it's a pair of bipedal sentient Japanese 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.280 leaks who are talking about the agricultural products of this prefecture. 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:58.919 Exactly. Yeah, so yu Kyara have garnered a fair amount 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.760 of attention internationally already. I imagine many of you are 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.280 more than aware of them. I believe John Oliver did 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.480 a piece on them many years ago, and it has 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:11.240 continued to revisit the topic over the years. But for 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.480 those of you who are new to the concept, you 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.079 can basically start with the Western concept of a mascot character, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.240 say a Ronald McDonald. You know, like, there's an example 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.520 Ronald McDonald and is his team of McDonald's mascots. They're 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:29.639 sometimes physical and costume or makeup form. They're oftentimes illustrative, 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:35.360 sometimes downplayed, sometimes you know, exaggerated, but they're there and 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.880 they represent the brand. Then you have things like what 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.800 the Starbucks siren with with the double tail. You know, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.200 I don't you know, I have never seen anyone dressed 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.160 up as that in an official capacity for Starbucks, but 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:49.720 it's very much a part of the brand and you 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.680 recognize it like, Okay, there it is. It's a creature, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.960 but it doesn't have much personality. But you could say 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:56.160 it's sort of a mascot. 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.800 Yes, I think the Starbucks Mermaid and Ronald McDonald are 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:04.320 a good comparison, except a couple of differences with most eurokiara. 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.840 I think they tend to be more shaped like pillows 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.440 than either of those characters, where Ronald McDonald and the 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.720 Starbucks Mermaid are more kind of humanoid, like leaner, more 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.839 humanoid representations most erukiara, though there's some variation between them. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.760 Most of them are more like a large, walking plushy. 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.800 Yeah, like Grimace of the McDonald's crew would be a 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.919 better example. He would fit the mold more of the 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.160 euro kiara, as would I would say the Michelin. 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.120 Man, yes, yeah, or the stay Puffed marshmallow Man exactly. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:37.640 Yes. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.839 But another thing is that both of those are corporate mascots, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.320 and so we're familiar with like corporate mascots in America, 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:50.080 like sports team mascots. But imagine if a broader range 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.760 of cultural institutions and objects could have mascots. So you 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.200 can have a mascot for a town, a mascot for 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.000 a region, a mascot for a piece of public infrastructure, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.960 or a mascot for an agricultural product. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.200 Yeah, that's that's where it instantly begins to become my 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.880 obvious I think to do to to guideen and Westerners 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.880 that you realize, oh, well, a chemical company that is 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.200 not marketing anything towards children will have one of these, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:23.080 as will like the local sewage treatment plan. So it's uh, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.080 it runs in directions you might not expect. And then 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.159 you find or if I have found anyway sort of 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.719 digging into it, then there are there are like corporate 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.880 companies that you might expect to have gotten into it 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.080 that seemingly haven't. Like, as far as I can tell, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.200 Pilot Pins, the Pilot Corporation based in Japan, they have 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.960 no uru kiara that I can tell. Maybe I just 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.120 couldn't find them. But then so, not every company company 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.159 is getting in on this, and it is it seems 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:49.800 like it's more often that you do find them in 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:56.680 various like city or prefecture associated organizations. All right, so 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.760 what does this word mean? Euro Kiara is actually fairly 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.640 complex to break down as a translation. One paper I 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:06.720 was looking out for this as a twenty sixteen paper 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.800 called who is Hikonyan The Phenomenon of Japanese Urukiara by 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:17.320 Gillian Ray Sutter, this twenty sixteen publication, and they point 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.880 out that the term here is short for the code 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.920 mixed uru mascot character, So you already know what mascot 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.040 character is, and that just becomes kiaru. But the uru 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:35.039 here may be translated as loose, easy, lazy, careless, half hearted, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:39.120 or lenient, according to Sutter. And I've also seen lax 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.360 and soft invoked in translation as well. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.200 Yeah, so I did a little digging on this word yurui, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.600 which is spelled usually in English why you are you? I? 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:55.200 And it seems to have some different clusters of connotations. 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.040 So Japanese speakers right in and correct me if I'm 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.600 getting anything wrong here, But I'm doing best to figure 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.159 out all the different to untangle all this. It seems 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.839 like it literally means loose, slack, or soft, but when 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:13.320 applied to a person or creature, indicates something like relaxed, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.640 chilled out, laid back, or lazy. So I think in 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.000 this facet of the words meaning the dude from The 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.920 Big Lebowski would be a type of yurui, but it 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.080 would also seem to apply to characters that are more gentle, 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:33.000 light hearted, sweet, and non threatening. So something that is 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.840 yurui maybe has some overlap with cuteness, but is also 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.960 like no big deal. Also, an academic essay that I'm 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.640 going to cite later in this episode translates yurukiara as 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.400 wobbly characters, and that brings in another aspect of them. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.280 I don't know if wobbliness is itself at all implied 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:57.200 by yurui, but the author who coined this term originally 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.240 specified that an important thing about them is the they 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.600 have sort of like awkward or unstable movements. I think 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.880 that's a key part of their cuteness appeal. But anyway, 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:08.960 I don't know if we really have a term in 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.720 English that connects all these different connotations that I'm seeing 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.320 with yurui. But the way I understand it is that 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:20.600 is that these yurui characters are They're soft, they're easy going, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.160 they're a little bit awkward, they're cute, they're non threatening, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:26.840 and they are not telling you to hurry up and 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.920 get those spreadsheets finished. They're just they're just hanging out. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:33.280 Yeah, I think that's that's pretty accurate from what I've 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.280 read and what I've seen. And the interesting thing is, though, 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:38.960 even though they are very lax and very chill, and 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.280 they might be doing nothing more than just being that 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:49.000 representing this company or this you know, public works department, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:55.400 but also they can and sometimes are invoked in situations 0:08:55.720 --> 0:09:01.080 or or in causes that are serious, but they keep 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.280 that laxness. So I'll get a specific example of this 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.720 in the second episode we do. But it's like, your 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.839 particular mascot may be like, Hey, I'm just being chill, 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.200 I'm vibing, I'm cute and approachable, but try not to 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:16.200 fall in the train tracks. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.319 Yes, yeah, let me remind you about public health precautions, 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.720 but in a very non threatening, chilled out way. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.600 Exactly now, they are pretty much, without exception cute. I 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.000 think if you look around, there are so many of them, 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.000 as we'll get into there's basically an unknown number of them, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.400 and there's not uniform quality. Most of them are amazing, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.599 but some of them there have been occasionally one or 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:44.040 two that I've seen where it's like, I don't know 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.120 that this concept really working. Maybe they should have workshopped 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.199 this a little bit more, but they are pretty much, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.600 without exception cute, and therefore I think they're a fine 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.040 example of the larger Japanese concept of cuteness kauhai and 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:58.120 its various subsets. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:00.520 Rob, I don't know if you came across the same thing, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.200 but there are a few that I almost understood to 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:07.720 be considered cute in the way that they fail to 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:12.000 be cute. That they're like something that is understood as 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.320 an attempt to be cute that is unsuccessful and is 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.720 in fact ugly, which itself is cute. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:19.840 Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. And this 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.360 might actually relate to some of the subsets of kauai 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.560 that I find pretty interesting, Like, for instance, there there 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.080 is or was I'm not sure if this term is 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.280 still relevant, but kauai noir, which is dark cute, so 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.960 it's creepy cute, and therefore sometimes it may feel like 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.400 it's like falling short of true cuteness, or the mask 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.200 of cuteness is slipping away from horror. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.600 One of the academic essays I was reading about Urikiara 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.920 talked about this concept of gross cute. It's a type 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.360 of cuteness in Japanese culture that didn't apply to any 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:56.680 particular URUQR, but to other bear characters in cartoons specifically, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:58.520 I think like a rotting zombie bear. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.920 Oh okay, yeah, yeah, there was one called angry Bear 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:04.880 I think I remember this was years and years ago. 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.120 That is like an actual bear and he ends up 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.960 mauling the cute human characters in his vicinity because he's 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.720 an actual pair. But there's yeah, there's this other area 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.120 that I believe is referred to as pitiful cute, and 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.360 I think there is also some sort of level of 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.920 crossover in Japanese language between pitiful and cute that maybe 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.320 doesn't like they're too separate in English and maybe they're 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:30.040 more connected in Japanese. It's my loose understanding, but you 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.840 have this pitiful cute area that I think arguably includes 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.720 such examples as Goodi Tama, the Lazy Egg, which I 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:37.840 know a number of you are familiar with now because 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.520 he's really blown up and has his own Netflix series. 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.960 He's amazing. And then there's this other character that I 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.359 only discovered while in Japan, and this is a Panchu Yusagi. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:53.680 She is like a little pink rabbit in like old 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.760 Granny underpants, and I think her name basically means like 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.240 Pamper's rabbit. And she goes about trying to do things 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.000 that are sweet and cute and have like sweet, cute, 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.960 meaningful experiences, generally in like two panel cartoons, and something 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.320 goes wrong, and so there is kind of this. She 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.440 often looks kind of weird in the second panel because 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.920 she's either embarrassed or she's angry. Expectations have not met 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:19.720 up with reality. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.000 Yeah, you shared this with with JJ and me, and 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.560 I thought this was really funny. It seems like they're 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.560 often centered around but like an awkward social misunderstanding, Like 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.000 there was one comic you shared with somebody waving and 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.360 then this character waving back at them, but then it's 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.760 clear that the original character was waving for a cab. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.440 Yeah, it's that sort of thing, and it's really good 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.160 and most of it has no language associated with it, 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.720 so you can look it up on Instagram and plow 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.480 through them, which is what I did. I mean, I also, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.120 I want to stress I also did things like I 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.439 saw Mount Fuji while I was there, but I mostly 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:54.800 end up talking about things like this. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.480 Oh but wait, doesn't the Mount Fuji region have its 0:12:58.520 --> 0:12:59.200 own mascot? 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.480 Oh yeah, yeah, And I'll definitely come back to that. Yeah, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:05.640 anywhere you go there there's there's some sort of it 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.760 basically comes down to like how visible are they going 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.839 to be? You know, how many posters and so forth. 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.680 But I want to come back to just the concept 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.319 of cuteness and kawhi and broader detail here, because I 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.720 think it is key. It's one of the key sort 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:33.119 of tripod legs or even like table legs to understanding 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.320 this whole concept. And I was I was looking around 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:37.880 for a good source on this, and I found an 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:42.600 article on Ian magazine titled The Great Regression by Tokyo 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.720 based translator, writer and speaker Matt Alt who also co 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.160 wrote a trio of very fun books on Yo Kai 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.440 Yuri and Ninja's which two of those I've read with 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:53.680 my son and the other one I have on the 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.480 shelf ready to go, in addition to other books dealing 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.640 with Japanese culture that he's pinned over the years. And 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.240 so this article in general is a very good read. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.840 It deals with this idea that there's like this larger 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:11.560 trend in the world of adults taking an interest in 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.640 things associated with childhood, arguably when they should not be, 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.640 which I want to stress here is a not a 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.480 concept that I feel one hundred percent okay with. It's 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.840 just kind of like a judgment call of how grown 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.560 up to spend their lives and make their choices. 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.280 Well, yeah, we could take normative judgments out of it 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.960 and just talk about the phenomenon. It does seem like 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:33.920 there's been a clear trend, I think in the last 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.640 couple of decades at least in my knowledge in the 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:41.760 US context, of more of a tendency for adults living 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.200 adult lives to engage with say media men for children. 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.280 I mean, especially like you know, nostalgic media that they 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.080 liked when they were kids, and you know, you can 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.280 ask interesting questions about like what drives that kind of 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:55.680 that kind of interest. 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.680 Yeah. Yeah, And I want to stress that the alt 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.520 article here is very good and is ultimately not trying 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.560 to grind an act in that direction. But but my 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.920 my sort of gut response to just the concept of 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:09.520 it is like I end up, you know, going back 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.160 to that old C. S. Lewis quote, you know, when 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.560 I became a man, I put away childish things, including 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.640 the fear of childishness and the desire to be very 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.800 grown up, you know, because like ultimately, like what are 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.360 adults supposed to be doing? You know, you get into 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.640 that whole question, and and and also like the unreality 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.360 of the idea that that in the old days adults 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.920 didn't do things like play games or or craft you know, 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.640 fiction for children and so forth. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.880 I feel like the most childish thing one could actually 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.360 say is like, you know, that's for babies. I'm not 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.200 a baby. Yeah, yeah, nothing makes you sound more like 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:45.720 a baby. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:51.360 Yeah. So anyway, in this article all lays out this idea, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.000 this concept that many people in the contemporary Western world 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.080 have entered into a kind of global second childhood in 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.200 response to various social, economic, and local health factors over 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.680 the last decade or two. And this is wrapped up 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.360 in the whole idea of they're like the Great Regression. 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.520 And in this the idea is that has arguably occurred 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.720 in Japan during the nineties. Quote, when the youth and 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.880 young adults of a hyper connected post industrial society lose 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.800 faith in the future, the Great regression is inevitable. And 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.640 I have to admit, And he points out as well 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.280 that this sounds grim and again I personally feel certain 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.040 amount of resistance to the idea. But he goes on 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.600 in an interesting direction here, arguing that this large scale 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.640 cultural interest in the things of childhood can be in 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.760 net positive and that this is where where it gets 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.160 into the mindset that I can connect with. Alt writes quote, 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.000 Under the right circumstances, regression can nourish. It can be 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.480 a form of progression, a form of experimentation and creative play. 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.080 It can pave the way for new ways of thinking 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.560 and living. It can spawn new trends and identities and lifestyles. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.680 These become essential tools for navigating the strange new frontiers 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.080 of mind life, and as we adopt them, they transform 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.800 our definition of what it means to lead healthy adult lives. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:11.200 So the historic underpinning here is that is Alt lays 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.000 out Japan's post war economy was extremely ascended from the 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.640 nineteen seventies through roughly nineteen ninety one, and was even 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.919 expected to overtake the US economy, something that ended up 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:27.239 being echoed and warped in contemporary, certainly American culture at 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.639 the time, even in racist and hateful ways, like you know, 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.160 up to and including acts of physical violence. And it's 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.199 also in other ways, like you see it referenced in 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.560 the sci fi tapestries of you know, futuristic cyberpunk visions. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.680 You know, this idea that the future, there's something about 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.200 the future that will be predominantly Japanese, that sort of thing, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:50.959 and you still see that in sort of like retro 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.240 futuristic cyberpunk visions. It like just becomes sort of baked 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:58.600 in to the concept and into the world building. But 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.560 then in nineteen ninety one, there's this economic burst. People 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.040 coped or didn't as best they could, and there was 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.679 this kind of slide away from the capitalist pursuit of 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:14.359 the salarymen, you know, the stereotypical you know, employee worker 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.919 that's out there just really busting it. And then you know, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:18.439 at the end of the day, you know, you have 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.080 a few beers and then you go to sleep, and 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.840 you wake up and you do it all again. And 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.920 there was a slide away from all of that into 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.880 interest that were previously more niche. And this all brings 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.240 us to Kuwai quote. Salarymen may have built Japan ink, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.840 but when it crumbled, young people picked up the pieces. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.960 The real trendsetters were young women, ranging from schoolgirls to 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.840 office ladies, the female counterparts of the salarymen. They began 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.040 unabashedly incorporating symbols of feminine childhood into their adult identities, 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.320 upending entire industries. So the power of kuai, a Japanese 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.840 word that overlaps with cuteness, but which is also a 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.639 state of mind that refers to being adorable, playful, just 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.320 begging for cuddles like a kitten or a baby. By 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.280 nineteen ninety two, One Woman's magazine anointed kawai the most 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.439 widely used, widely loved habitual word in modern living Japanese. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.960 So it's a kind of fascination, especially beginning with younger 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.320 women in Japan, but sort of taking over the whole 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:21.000 culture in a way and becoming a very economically important concept. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.240 Yeah. Absolutely, and one that even though you know, there's 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.960 a load about kuai that's distinctly Japanese, and you know 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.080 we're already talking and we'll continue to talk about that, 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.479 but obviously it's also something that anyone can look at 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.960 and feel connection to, you know, it's it's ultimately it 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.159 has universal appeal. So anyway, all goes on to argument 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.000 while critics love to see all of this, either in 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.800 Japan or elsewhere, as a moral failure, as an inward 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.040 escape into fantasy. He stresses that it's much more than that, 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.520 and in the example of Japanese pop culture, it didn't 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.720 just result in an endlessen we're inward gays, but also 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.920 resulted in new modes of social change, adaptation to changing times, 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.439 and the advancement of whole industries. So anyway, it's a 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.760 great article worth checking out in full. But I think 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:07.680 the key things to keep in mind for our purposes 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.040 here are that number one, there was a hyper charging 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.000 of kauwhai in Japanese culture during the nineteen nineties. And 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.880 again too, it doesn't occur in a bubble, but it 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:22.879 also isn't a bubble, if that makes sense. Like, this 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:24.919 doesn't mean that there was nothing cute prior to that. 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.280 I mean, to the contrary, there was this strong, you know, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.320 element of cuteness, appreciation of like small decorative objects and 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.919 so forth in Japan, and this was like just a 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.040 hyper charging of that. And you can also point to 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.240 examples like Hello Kitty, one of the ambassadors of kauai 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.000 dates back to seventy five, and you know, as we've 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.600 discussed in the show before, you have this long standing 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.639 Japanese fascination with house cats, and cats feature very strongly 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.840 into various forms of kauai and also kawai as manifested 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.119 in Japanese handwriting goes back to the seventies and so forth, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.720 and I think you can make similar observes about this. 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.719 You know, the ideas of regression over here. You know, 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.800 people are pointing out, oh you have you have adults 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.800 with no children going to Disney World, adults with no 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:12.600 children buying lego sets. You know, these are things that 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.320 pre existed any observations of widespread regression by decades. So 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:18.520 you know, none of this is coming out of nowhere. 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:20.840 I think it's hard to deny the appeal of legos 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.160 to anyone. The way they snap together, that's just good. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah. My son and I just built an ornithopter. 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:32.480 It was it was challenging and rewarding. Anyway, coming back 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.000 to Urukiara again, it's just essential that these are not 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.080 just aimed at kids. They're representing a wide range of 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:45.080 regional governments or governmental agencies and all sorts of different businesses, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.640 but not all businesses. For instance, I ran across one 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:54.760 very adorable pig urukiara that is a pink pig, very 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.600 cute inside of like bubbles, like he's covered from bubbles, 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:59.560 like he just got out of a bubble bath. His 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:04.000 name is Awabutta and he is the mascot of Eagle 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.560 Star Chemicals. So it's companies, you know like that. I 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.200 don't know anything about Eagle Star Chemicals, but I'm assuming 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.440 that they are not, you know, particularly like child oriented 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:16.600 in their marketing and so forth. But they have this 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:17.600 adorable mascot. 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:19.919 Why is the pig surrounded in bubbles? Oh no, this 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.200 is not a pig that's dissolving in a vat of 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:23.120 why is it. 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:26.280 No, he's happy, he's cute. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.200 Okay, it's a happy pig. It does look happy, does 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:30.400 not look to be dissolving. 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:35.680 Now, as we've pointed out, these these mascots, these zero 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:41.280