Keitai Charms

Straps and charms on keitaidenwa or "keitai" for short in many western countries are on the rise. In many 1st world Asian countries however, like Japan, these have already taken over since the invention of the cell phone. These charms can be found essentially in every store or shop and range from animals, Hello Kitty, bells, small omamori, to sports and so on. 

Japan is a place where once you arrive you will be overwhelmed by the amount of cuteness that you encounter. At least the Japanese understanding of what is cute.  I will delve into this later on but today I will discuss specifically "keitaidenwa charms" or cell phone charms.






The use of keitai charms is a huge part of Japanese social and youth culture and has a basis in the importance of the cell phone culture of Japan. For people with keitai, these charms are a way to share their interests and show their support for their favorite animes and organizations, likes and dislikes, and for most of the young women it shows their ability to understand and portray being cute.

 If we want to talk about functionality of a keitai strap the one thing that it "does" is it allows people to pull their phone out of their pockets with ease. Past that their is no real functionality unless the charm is designed to do so.

In a place like Japan where being yourself and being unique openly is often looked down upon, this simple yet subtle way of expressing yourself is very important to Japanese people on a subconcieous level.

I imagine that if we were to ask many Japanese why they have charms on their phone many would say that the strap or charm signifies something they like and that would be the end of it. It would not be until they evaluated the practice from an outsiders point of view to understand the full effects and meanings behind this form of self expression.