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Systematic Study for “Kawaii” Products (The Second Report)

- Comparison of “Kawaii” Colors and Shapes -

Michiko Ohkura1, Akari Konuma

1, Shuto Murai

1and Tetsuro Aoto

2 

1Department of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

(Tel : +81-3-5859-8508; E-mail: {ohkura, l04040, l05118}@sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp)2Graduate School of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

(Tel : +81-3-5859-8508; E-mail: m706101@ sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp)

Abstract: In the 21st

century, the Kansei values of industrial products are considered very important. In this study, wefocused our attention on kawaii as a Kansei value for future industrial products, and analyzed kawaii attributessystematically to construct kawaii products. After performing a simple experiment using magnets, we performed another experiment with kawaii colors and shapes in two-dimensional plane and three-dimensional virtual space.

Keywords:  Kawaii, Kansei value, Color, Shape, Virtual.

1. INTRODUCTION

The rapid progress of science and technology in the20

thcentury produced a materially affluent society. In

addition, the striking development of information and

communication technologies in the latter half of thecentury supplied convenient tools such as computersand network environments. Against this backdrop, people in the 21st century are placing more importance

on spiritual wealth than material wealth and aremodifying their value systems from physical-based toinformation-based. Based on these social backgrounds,the Kansei values of industrial products are consideredvery important.

In the advanced information society of the 21

st

 century with its communication infrastructure of 

computers and networks, enriching software that utilizesthese technologies is crucial, that is, digital contents.Concentrating on the large export surpluses of Japanese

games, cartoons, and animation, which comprises theso-called digital content, in contrast with thetremendous import surpluses of software products other than the above, kawaii characters and their highlysensitive techniques are primary reasons for the successof digital content [1].

Our new research analyzes kawaii to construct such products.

2. BACKGROUND OF  KAWAII AND OUR 

PREVIOUS EXPERIMENT

Such various Japanese characters as  Hello Kitty and

 Pokemon have already spread all over the world; theJapanese word kawaii has become international [1].Moreover, pink digital cameras and round printers have

  been marketed. These productions are ad-hocapplications of the implicit knowledge of the designer,questionnaire results from female high school students,

or the taste of charismatic fashion models. They are notthe results of a systematic approach to kawaii products.

However, since no research has focused on the kawaii attributes of artificial products themselves, we focus on

a systematic analysis of  kawaii artificial products

themselves; that is, kawaii caused by the attributes of artificial products such as shapes, colors, textures, andmaterials. We aim to clarify a method for constructingkawaii products from the results.

It is said that the description of the value of kawaii at present first appeared in section 151 of the Pillow Book 

written by Sei Shonagon, a very famous Japanesefemale essayist, in the Heian Period [2]. In that section,her examples of kawaii objects included a behavior of 

the chirping sparrow, a small leaf of a hollyhock, and asky-blue jar.

Although Sei Shonagon had already mentioned a leaf and a jar as examples of  kawaii objects, most objects

she described as kawaii are restricted to the followingliving creatures:  Children, girls, small animals and other living

creatures

  Facial expressions of the above creatures

  Gestures of the above creatures

  Representations of the above creatures (e.g. figures,stuffed animals)

Recent works on kawaii include “Kawaii Ron” byInuhiko Yomoda, a middle-aged Japanese male

researcher [3], “Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon” bytwo American male journalists [1], and “Cuties in

Japan” by a female researcher in Britain [4]. Theseworks recognize the following as common attributes of kawaii;

  An emotional value of Japanese origin.

  Such positive meanings as cute, loveable, andsmall.

Based on a survey of cultural studies, we formed ahypothesis, and performed a simple experiment to verifyit [5-6]. Analysis of the experimental results verified our hypothesis (with some modification).

Japanese men, especially middle-aged tend to regardkawaii as an adjective only for living creatures and their figures and characters. On the other hand, Japanese

women and young men express kawaii not only for living creatures but also for artificial objects.

SICE Annual Conference 2008August 20-22, 2008, The University Electro-Communications, Japan

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Six basic objects from 3ds Max were chosen ascandidates: box, pyramid, cube, cylinder, tube, and torus.

Red, blue, and green were chosen as the basic colors.Participants were presented a set of six objects of thesame color from various viewpoints and asked to choose

the most kawaii object and to explain their choice. This

  procedure was repeated three times for three colors.Examples of the presented sets of objects are shown inFig. 8. Finally, presented with the three chosen objects

for different colors all together, participants were againasked to choose the most kawaii object and to explaintheir choice.

Experiments were conducted with six female and sixmale students in their 20s. The temperature andhumidity of the experimental room ranged from 23.3-

24.2C, and 49-51%, respectively.

Figure 9 shows the results for each color. The verticalaxis shows the number of participants who chose theobject in the horizontal axis. The following conclusions

were obtained:  For blue objects, such round objects as cubes,

cylinders and tori were chosen as the most kawaii.

  For red objects, most participants judged that noobjects were kawaii.

  For green objects, 1/3 of the participants chose

straight-lined objects, 1/3 chose round objects, and1/3 judged none as the most kawaii object.

  The most kawaii shape of an object depends on its

color.

  Differences exist by gender.Table 1 shows the results of the most kawaii 

combination. The numerator and the denominator 

respectively denote the number of male and female participants who chose that combination. The followingconclusions were obtained from this table:  Most participants chose round objects as the most

kawaii.

  Most male participants chose blue objects as the

most kawaii, but female participants didn’t show acolor preference.

This experiment also reconfirmed that the value of kawaii for artificial objects is acceptable for Japanese

men and women in their 20s. However, differences exist  between the results of the first and the secondexperiments.

4. DISCUSSION

The results of the first and the second experiments

reconfirmed that the value of kawaii for artificial objectsis acceptable for young Japanese men and women.

However, comparing both experiments, following

results are identical:  All participants could choose a most kawaii 

combination of color and shape.

  The choice of the most kawaii shape varied bycolor.

  The most kawaii object has a curved shape.On the other hand, differences exist by color. Warmer 

colors tended to be chosen as the most kawaii in the first

Fig. 6 Result of choosing most kawaii shape.

Fig. 7 Experimental setup.

Fig. 8 Examples of presented objects.

100-inch film screen

2 projectorswith planarpolarizationfilters

Controller

PC

Generatingobjects withvarious colorsand shapes.

Planarpolarizationglasses

  100-inch film screen

2 projectorswith planarpolarizationfilters

Controller

PC

Generatingobjects withvarious colorsand shapes.

Planarpolarizationglasses

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experiment, while most male participants chose blueobjects as the most kawaii in the second experiment. Itis uncertain whether this was caused by the differences

of the 2-dimensional plane shapes in the firstexperiment and the 3-dimensional virtual objects in thesecond experiment. Additional detailed experiments

remain as future works.

5. CONCLUSION

In the 21st

century, the Kansei values of industrial  products are considered crucial. In this study, wefocused on kawaii as a Kansei value for future industrial

  products and began to systematically analyze kawaii attributes to construct such products.

From our previous experiment, we confirmed the

following hypothesis:“Japanese men, especially middle-aged, tend to

regard kawaii as an adjective only for living creatures

and their figures and characters. On the other hand,Japanese women and young men express kawaii notonly for living creatures but also for artificial objects.”

To reconfirm the above hypothesis and to make a new

step to clarify the attributes of  kawaii products, we performed new experiments with kawaii for colors andshapes in a two-dimensional plane and in a

three-dimensional virtual space. From the results, thefollowings conclusions were obtained:

  All participants could choose the most kawaii 

combination of color and shape.

  The choice of the most kawaii shape varied bycolor.

  The most kawaii object had a curved shape.  Warmer colors tended to be chosen as most kawaii 

in the 2-dimensional plane, whereas blue objects

were chosen as the most kawaii in a 3-dimensional

virtual space by most male participants.Future consideration is required for the different

tendencies of the most kawaii color between

2-dimensional plane shapes in the first experiment and3-dimensional virtual objects in the second experiment.

REFERENCES

[1] K. Belson, B. Bremner, Hello Kitty: The RemarkableStory of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon, John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken,2004.

[2] Sei Shonagon, I. Morris, The Pillow Book of SeiShonagon (Translation from the Oriental Classics),

Columbia University Press, NY, 1991.[3] I. Yomota,   Kawaii Ron, Chikuma Shobo, Tokyo,

2006.

[4] S. Kinsella, “Cuties in Japan”, In Women, Media and 

Consumption in Japan (Lise Skov and Brian Moeran,ed.), University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 1995.

“http://basic1.easily.co.uk/04F022/036051/Cuties.html”

[5] M. Ohkura, T. Aoto, “Systematic Study for “Kawaii”Products”,   Proceedings of the 1

 st International 

Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion

 Research (KEER2007), Sapporo, 2007.[6] M. Ohkura, T. Aoto, “Systematic Study for “Kawaii”

Products”,   Proceedings of workshop of DIS2008,

Cape Town, 2008.[7] T. Aoto, et al., “Construction of Virtual Toyosu

Campus Display System”, The Research Report of 

Shibaura Institute of Technology, Natural Sciencesand Engineering , Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 11-18, 2005.( in Japanese)

Fig. 9 Results of choosing object.

Table 1 Results for final combination

Men/Women Blue Red GreenBox 0/1

Pyramid Cube 3/1 1/2

Cylinder  1/0 Tube 1/0 Torus 0/2 none