this is true, in western culture its hard to understand the Japanese view of KAWAII (cute). For Japanese, cute does not necessarily have a sexual meaning, or it isnt supposed to be sexually provocative. For example, a lot of school girls have really short skirts in Japan but it is not necessarily to be 'sexy' its about being 'cute'. In the west we would perhaps see it as 'sexy' to be like that, but girls in japan do it to be 'cute'.
in short, perhaps 'cute' in Japan has a more innocent 'lovely' meaning, with less emphasis on sex. where as in the west we immediately link it with a sexual meaning.
just my thoughts, its a difficult one to explain.