One reader wrote this in 2012
1. Japanese (men and women both) tend to fall into extremes of femininity or masculinity. There is never such a thing as "gender neutral". Much of this has to do with the language which differs strongly between feminine and masculine forms of speech. Kawaii culture is often simply an expression (or marketing) of that extreme femininity, while there is an equally prevalent Samurai culture of high speed trains, magnificent architecture, and competitiveness that expresses the extreme masculine. While Japan has a deep tradition of subtlety of social expression, it has a deeper tradition of profound emotion - it is not unusual to see a fistfight in parliament, or a man weeping in public.
2. The Japanese are perfectly aware of this fact that they love the childish, and some contemporary Japanese popular art pokes fun at this. Once recent anime features an ingenious "Professor" who makes sentient robots. She is also about 8 years old and would live on snacks and read manga all day - were it not for the admonishments of one of her more sensible creations. The Professor is a critique of Japan - as brilliantly intelligent, magnificently creative, and absurdly infantile.
3. Captain Tylor from the "Musekinin Kansho Tylor" which we watched is a similar critique. The Captain is a Japanese everyman - naturally cunning, innocent, good-hearted, yet completely irresponsible. He is contrasted with the old imperial Japanese ideal, Lt. Yamamoto, who is consumed by duty and has to find his heart. This sharp contrast between the not-so-past feudal Japan and modern democratic Japan is still a daily reality for many Japanese.
4.. Japanese culture has from the earliest times has had what Fr. Isaac, (a teacher at the seminary) might call an "irrealist" mode of thinking and artistic expression. It is perhaps the first culture to attempt to depict nothingness. Traditional Japanese art is minimalist and ideological, like modern western art. Of course, the impressionist movement was heavily influenced by Japanese art. Similarly, western Realism has had a huge impact on Japanese society, which is radically apparent in the postwar anime and manga sphere, which is full of western "practical fantasy" such as princes, dragons, and faeries acting out morality plays. Kawaii is a polite derivative of Greek ideals - celebration of the physical form, a frank but positive view of humanity, and the benevolent leadership of fate (or grace!) - as much as it is an organic progression of Japanese ideals.
Remember Ayu from Kanon, who uses "Boku" for "I", a masculine form - probably from talking with boys more than girls as a child. Yuuichi suggests she use "Atashi" which is feminine, or "Watashi" which is a more modern, gender-neutral construction. She says she doesn't like these and so Yuuichi teases her by suggesting she use "Ore" - a medieval super-masculine form used for oration and commands. She tries it and the combination of her using "Ore" with her petite size and high voice is so absurd that Yuuichi reels over in laughter. Ayu, like Japan, is outwardly cute and feminine, but inwardly tomboyish, independent, and assertive.
And, another reader sent this:
Everything you need to know about Japan's population crisis
Japan's birthrate is plummeting. Why have so many young Japanese given up on getting married?
By Sarah Eberspacher | January 11, 2014
There clearly is a subset of Japanese youth who have withdrawn from dating. Instead, they focus on online porn and games like Nintendo's Love Plus, in which players conduct a relationship with an anime girlfriend. Hundreds of thousands of young men are known ashikikomori, shut-ins who eschew human contact and spend their days playing video games and reading comics in their parents' homes.
For years, Takeshi hid from the world, playing video games all night and sleeping all day, eating from a tray his mother left outside his room. He was a hikikomori, one of an estimated 1 million Japanese teens and young men who have become shut-ins, with virtually no human contact beyond their parents. Some of the hikikomori first withdraw because of some social embarrassment — bad grades, or a romantic rejection. The longer they drop out, the more shame they feel in a society where one's status and reputation are paramount and hard to change. Parents, and especially mothers, often enable the withdrawal. "In Japan, mothers and sons often have a symbiotic, codependent relationship," says psychiatrist Tamaki Saito, who first identified the disorder in the 1990s. Takeshi re-entered society after four years, thanks to a government program that sends female outreach counselors known as "rental sisters" to coax the hikikomori out of the house. But that program doesn't always work. As one shut-in of 15 years said, "I missed my chance." sekkusu shinai shokogun, or "celibacy syndrome,"
