Stereotypes in Japanese Media Japan

Stereotypes in Japanese Media

Japan has been a traditional society for ages and even though there has been some dramatic social changes in the paste few decades, traditional roles still dominate society's thinking. This is reflected clearly in Japanese media especially its commercials and magazines which always portray women in a certain stereotypical manner despite the major changes in recent years. Though literature on stereotypical images in Japanese media is limited, it still offers valuable insight into the issue and confirms international findings.

Japanese media's major stereotypical images come from tradition-inspired gender roles where women are presented in a far different light than men. Women are also shown as being more beauty-conscious than men, they are assigned certain specific traits like calmness and elegance, and they are also shown as delicate objects of desire instead of women with a mind of their own. These findings have been confirmed by two major studies. A study by Sakamoto et al. (1999) studies Japanese commercials and highlights the stereotypes and the second study was conducted by Ford et al. (1998) which studied the gender stereotypes in Japanese magazines. The two studies offer a close look at how Japanese media portrays women and what stereotypes can be commonly found in commercials and magazines.

In Sakamoto's study, television commercials from 1961 to 1993 were analyzed. They examined both the frequency of stereotypes and changes that had occurred since 1961. It was found that women and men in commercials were portrayed according to their larger traditional social images. Interestingly the study also revealed that while stereotypes had decreased in some areas, they had increased with respect to some other features. They concluded that any effort that has been made to counter stereotypical portrayals in media has produced limited success.

Stereotypical images are splashed across magazine covers and television commercials worldwide. It is not an exclusive Japanese problem but while American media has tried to minimize stereotypes to some extent, the same cannot be said of Japan even though status of women has improved significantly over the past three decades. Sakamoto (1999) writes: "The status of women in Japan has also changed in recent years. For example, the number of women in employment has greatly increased over the past three decades. The Ministry of Labor in Japan...reported that 9,130,000 women were employed in 1965, compared to 20,480,000 in 1995. The percentage of women with tertiary educational qualifications has also increased. The ratios of students who entered universities or colleges were 5.5% for women and 14.9% for men in 1960." This improvement in status warranted a change in the way women were portrayed by the media but interestingly both men and women are presented in more traditional ways by the media hence reinforcing the stereotypes.

Some of the most well-known commercials were selected to examine prevailing stereotypes. Since 1961, All Japan Radio and Television Commercials Confederation has been giving awards to best commercials. These commercials were chosen for Sakamoto study and it was found that they contained some uniform stereotypical images such as showing women being younger in age than men, women associated with cheaper products compared to men and women employed in fixed womanly occupations or portrayed as housewives. More men than women appeared in these commercials but the difference was not that significant. More women were shown as stay-at-home moms while more men were shown going out and being more active. Interesting women were also portrayed as being young and dependent and associated with cheaper products: "...women in these commercials are more likely to be young, dependents, in the home and users of the products. They are also more likely to recommend inexpensive products without the support of factual arguments. 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 than their male counterparts." (Ford, 1998)