Gender role portrayals in Japanese advertising: a magazine content analysis.

A plethora of research since the 1970s has investigated the extent to which American advertising portrays women in stereotypical roles. The findings indicate pervasive use of traditional Western stereotypes of women as dependent on or subservient to men, as primarily in the home or domestic settings, as preoccupied with physical attractiveness, as sex objects, as decorations for men, and as product users/demonstrators, and only limited use of women in positions of authority and credibility. Interestingly, stereotypical portrayals have not only continued, but in some ways have actually increased from the 1970s to the 1990s (Busby 1975; Courthey and Lockeretz 1971; Ferguson, Kreshal, and Tinkham 1990; Ferrante, Haynes, and Kingsley 1988; Gilly 1988; Lovdal 1989; Maracek et al. 1978; Soley and Kurzbard 1986; Soley and Reid 1988).

Previous research suggests that female role stereotyping in advertising is nearly a universal phenomenon (Ortner 1974). If that is true, questions arise as to the impact the stereotypes may have on women, children, and society in general. Research indicates that in American society and culture, harm can result from perpetuating stereotypical portrayals. Specifically, exposure to the media and advertising has been found to have a causal traditionalizing effect on gender role values and detrimental effects on women's self-concepts, achievement aspirations, and self-images (Frueh and McGhee 1975; Geis et al. 1984; Golden, Allison, and Clee 1985; Jennings-Walstedt, Geis, and Brown 1980; Moschis and Moore 1982). Concern about advertising's impact on society and culture is not new. Since the 1970s, research in the United States has indicated that the media, including advertising, promote and reinforce traditional female role stereotypes.

Because the effects of stereotypes have been suggested to be detrimental, the extent of their presence in other cultures warrants examination. Although investigations of gender stereotyping in advertising have been undertaken in several geographic areas, the use of advertising stereotypes in the Far East has been difficult to confirm. The reason is, in part, the limited number of published empirical studies addressing that topic. The purpose of most Asian content analyses has been to study the information content, appeals, values, and creative styles of Asian advertising (Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan 1987; Madden, Caballero, and Matsukubo 1986; Mueller 1987; Stewart and Campbell 1988; Tse, Belk, and Zhou 1989; Wee and Chan 1989).

The limited literature on Japanese media suggests that gender stereotypes may be present in Japan (Ford et al. 1992; Haarmann 1984; Rolandelli 1991). The reported status of women in contemporary Japan indicates that danson johi (respect for men, contempt for women) attitudes continue to be reinforced through Japan's traditional value system (Mioko and Jennison 1985). If media are a reflection of culture, it is reasonable to expect to find indigenous stereotypes depicted in Japanese magazine advertising.

Advertising in many Western countries has been found to depict women in stereotypical ways. The international gender literature suggests that women are portrayed as young more often than men and as concerned with physical attractiveness (Gilly 1988; Lysonski 1985; Mazzella et al. 1992). The literature also indicates that women continue to be shown as decorations and objects or sex objects (Edgar and McPhee 1974; Lysonski 1985; Santa Cruz and Erazo 1980; Sebastian et al. 1985; Wyckham 1987), and that in some cases that trend is increasing (Ferguson, Kreshal, and Tinkham 1990; Soley and Kurzbard 1986). Women have been depicted as product users or demonstrators more than as authorities or providing arguments for the advertised products (Furnham and Schofield 1986; Furnham and Voli 1989; Gilly 1988; Livingstone and Green 1986; Man stead and McCulloch 1981; Mazzella et al. 1992; Sebastian et al. 1985). The international gender stereotype literature suggests that women tend to be associated with low priced rather than expensive products (Furnham and Voli 1989; Livingstone and Green 1986; Manstead and McCulloch 1981; Mazzella et al. 1992; Michell and Taylor 1990; Sebastian et al. 1985). Previous Japanese gender role research has shown that the likeability of a character can be inferred from its positive or negative portrayal. Such inferences can then be used by the viewer to evaluate the social acceptability of the attributes being displayed by the character (Rolandelli 1991). Given the general trend in Japanese society to value traits traditionally associated with male roles more highly than traits associated with female roles (Kashiwagi 1986), we would expect to find men portrayed more positively (or as more likeable) than women, which would imply greater social acceptability for men than for women (Ortner 1974). Table 1 is a list of gender traits that have been found in previous Japanese studies (Ito 1978; Williams and Best 1990).

The fact that the Japanese culture appreciates subtleties and image (Ariga 1991) is reflected in the strong reliance on emotional and mood appeals used in Japanese advertisements (Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan 1987; Mueller 1987). Also, the greater importance of "impressions," "ambiguities," and "nuances" than of words in Japanese communication is reflected in commercial messages (CM): "as CMs are aired for a very short time only, their unspoken ingredients have to be felt by viewers in order to be attractive due to the support of 'empathy'....It is an emotion contained in the CM, a feeling viewers can share" (Uwagawa 1991, p. 93). If indeed "an underlying feature in the Japanese way of communication is to envelop everything with ambiguity [and] this is the background of the Japanese language that tends to avoid excessively obvious expression" (Uwagawa 1991, p. 92), it may be possible to uncover stereotypical role depictions through an analysis of the latent content of Japanese advertising portraying women. If Japanese magazine ads are stereotyped, women would be depicted more often in sexist than in egalitarian ways.

We conducted an exploratory study to establish a baseline of gender role portrayals in Japanese advertising through a content analysis of Japanese magazine advertisements. Given the importance of examining gender roles within their cultural context and the potential presence of gender stereotypes in cross-cultural advertising, we addressed the following exploratory research questions:

Q1: Do depictions of men and women in Japanese magazine advertisements have indigenous content?

Q2: Do depictions of men and women in Japanese …