Bye Bye Kitty!!!
Elliot’s thesis about “Childhood” in relation to Japan is related towards why the birthrate declined. His thesis is that the movement in this radical artwork, such as Aida and Murakami, has driven the people to become more centered on quality of life over quantity. Couples will keep from having a child until they feel that they have contributed enough into Japanese society. It has also caused younger groups to become more violent (i.e. the sarin gas incident 2 months after the great Kobe earthquake). The growth of feminism also has contributed to more women in the working class, which leads to a decreased birthrate due to women working just as hard as men.
Elliot goes on to say that Murakami strays from the common “kawaii” aspect of Japanese culture, such as Hello Kitty and other “adorably cute” things. Murakami creates his own image for himself, yet uses and twists this “kawaii” figure into something almost grotesque. Murakami “has apparently decided to fight the disease with the language of its infection” is meaning that he uses this “cute” factor to Japan’s disadvantage.
Aida views Japanese society as business suits and ties. He sees that Japan is so industrialized that no one takes the time to look around them any more; it’s just a world of work and duty, no play and no fun. He uses anime and manga styles to express how media influences Japan. It seems that almost every company or name brand has a little cartoon character that comes alongside it (i.e; Tokidoki, Hello Kitty, Vocaloid.).
Shioyasu uses a similar technique of the old Japanese paper cuttings. This technique uses the skill and precision of cutting different layers of paper stacked on top of each other to create a whole picture. She says that she doesn’t know anything about the old way of doing it and that she had no partake in making it seem like a paper cutting. She only liked the pattern for the leaf, not the old style.
jpn400 
The subject of Murakami using the concept of “kawaii” figure aspects of Japanese culture in an unorthodox way is actually an interesting topic of discussion. From the perspective of a foreigner, you often hear about the cuter parts of contemporary Japanese culture, though you are almost never exposed to this side of Japan in a negative light. Murakami helps shed some light into this apparently more complex aspect of Japanese culture than originally shown.
I agree with this completely. Prior to when I lived in Japan, all I really knew about the country was that samurai and pikachu came from there. Having lived there, and having seen the aspects of “kawaii” culture firsthand it is interesting to see how it is taken to an extreme, and how the cycle of influence has gone from real world to anime and then from anime to real world. A striking example of this are the themed cafe’s where the employees dress up like characters from anime’s. This itself is likely related to the development of maid cafe’s which is a strange aspect of “kawaii” culture in of itself.
I really think concept of “kawaii” is became one of the biggest concept among Japanese people. Even men are wearing clothes to look more “kawaii”. Figures and stuffed toys of cute character in animation and manga is also very popular among people.
I agree with your sentiment that Aida and Murakami must use the language of what they view as a problem to fight it. Of course, this falls into the problem of becoming what you hate. Of course, I don’t think these men hate the anime/manga culture of Japan, but perhaps the extreme to which it has gone. I believe the essay mentioned hikikomori which is really interesting as people are using the things that they use to keep them locked away from the world to get them out as contributing members of society. There is a recent tradition of fighting fire with fire and I think Murakami and Aida fit nicely into that.