Japan is laying claim to the title of the land of the cute in a bit to raise Tokyo’s international profile. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently appointed three young ladies to be Japan’s “Ambassadors of Cute”, they are Shizuka Fujioka, Yu Kimura and Misako Aoki. First Doraemon...

Japan’s obsession with cute, brightly coloured characters is well known. Characters like Pikachu, Doraemon and especially Hello Kitty enjoy iconic status in Japan. The Hello Kitty craze has now spread to neighboring Taiwan with the opening of a 30-bed Hau Sheng Hospital in Yuanlin in central Taiwan...