Men, on the other hand, are more likely to be old, job holders, out of the home and authorities on the products. They are also more likely to explain why the products are good and to recommend expensive items." (Sakamoto, 1999) However over the years, changes have been noticed in some respects. Women are not as much associated with cheaper products as they once were due to their improved financial status. However they were still preferred as young and beautiful instead of older or more mature. The study found that while in terms of argument and product price, stereotypes had decreased, they had become more prominent in terms of location. Location here refers to being in the home, in the kitchen or outside home.

The study suggested in its conclusion that, "traditional stereotypic portrayals of men and women in Japanese television commercials have not substantially decreased from 1961 to 1993. Nor do they accurately reflect contemporary social trends in Japan. As these traditional portrayals can negatively affect attitudes toward women, greater efforts to reduce gender stereotyping in current Japanese television commercials are recommended." (Sakamoto, 1999)

While television commercials have continued to reinforce certain stereotypes in Japan, the print media is not free of this guilt either. Magazines have consistently been portraying women in a certain manner thus reinforcing traditional stereotypes. Magazines analysis also confirms what has already been said before i.e. women are associated with low priced product and were younger than men. Women were also more likely to be portrayed negatively than men. Magazine analysis also confirmed international findings that "women as central figures portrayed as being younger than men. That finding mirrors those in the international gender literature, which reports women being stereotypically portrayed as young more often than men...women often portrayed stereotypically as being more concerned with physical attractiveness...

Men were more often used as decorative objects than women- this is counter-stereotypical. Also as opposed to TV commercials, location differences were not found in magazine analysis. Men were shown as often in the home as women. This was an interesting difference which suggests that media images may not be consisted across all channels in Japan. While men dominate the world of electronic media, women tend to enjoy a more equal place in magazine advertisements. The association with lower priced products was also weaker in magazine analysis. However women lacked product authority and more men were portrayed in that role which goes to show that women are not considered a major decision-maker in Japanese media.
These have been some really important findings about stereotypes found in Japanese media. The most common stereotypes were connected with gender roles and they have been carefully explored in this paper to suggest that gender stereotypes still exist in Japanese media but changes are coming in. The improved status of women has resulted in some changes in depiction of women in the media but Japan is still a traditional society which associates certain roles to men and women according to the gender. This is reflected in the media but things are expected to change in coming years due to greater international exposure.

References

Ford, J.B., Voli, P.K., Honeycutt, E.D., Casey, S.L. (1998), "Gender role portrayals in Japanese advertising: a magazine content analysis," Journal of Advertising, Vol. 27 No.1, pp.113-25.

Sakamoto, a., Kitou, M., Takahira, M., & Adachi, N. 1999. Gender stereotyping in Japanese television: A content analysis of commercials from 1961-1993. In T. Sugiman, M. Karasawa, J. Liu, & C. Ward (Eds.), Progress in Asian social psychology (Vol. 2, pp.…