Conclusions

This web page was designed to facilitate a presentation in the Gender Section of the International Association of Media and Communications Research (IAMCR) annual meetings in Barcelona, Spain, July 21-26, 2002
The panel in which this presentation was made concerned

"Mediations of Gender in Japan"
Conceptions of gender are produced, presented, filtered, distributed, modified and often influenced by a variety of media.
Among the media considered by the panelists, relative to Japan, included:

spaces

organizations

magazines

popular music
My contribution has been the medium of television advertising

	In this broad overview, I have reviewed a series of studies I have conducted As a unity, they provide a systematic, sustained portrait of what it is to be male, female and (to a lesser degree) a "third sex" in Japan I have shown how factors such as color and environmental elements such as water and land can work to mediate gender presentations
On this website one can also find a discussion of how particular "genderisms" are mediated in TV commercials. Included among these are: spatial relationships supra-ordinate and subordinate positioning ranking by social and occupational function the tendency to pose women in a diminished capacity in the presence of men a decided association of women with the emotional and tactile a separation of men from the family unit Such genderisms are ubiquitous and vary systematically between men and women

In the remainder of this presentation I have focussed on how, within the past few years, there has been an explosion in intimacy in Japanese commercials

Originally such intimacy was only foreigner-centered

In the past few years, however, emotional expression has taken more overt forms among Japanese

There is suddenly more kissing and hugging going on

The data reveals a very clear pattern:
Relative to TV commercials in Japan...
Representations of intimacy are on the increase

displays of sexuality are pervasive

such displays tend to revolve around women

As a class, women tend to express emotions in physical form

Men are depicted as reluctant or unable to initiate the expression of emotions

Men tend to rely on women:

to initiate discussions of feelings;

to render emotional states in tangible physical form

Because television advertising is a major reproductive force -- at least in potential -- the increasing proportion of messages about intimacy, sexuality, and overt expression of emotion in Japan is significant

It is a possible source of influence to be monitored in the years to come
At the very least, if ads are merely reflecting valuational changes currently transpiring in society, analyses such as these have utility, of sorts

They serve as tools for monitoring the existence of such developments

They have the ability to capture for our consideration the messages of possibility -- if not outright change -- circulating within the less visible layer of culture

Once (and not so long ago) all this emotional display was the exclusive province of foreigners.

This research has demonstrated that it has now become more in-bounds for Japanese
Reading these findings in concert with claims of Japanologists one can imagine the more "liberalizing", "westernized" Japan that so many have fought and fretted over these past 3 decades
Whether Japan is actually "turning Western", its advertising communications are.
How ad recipients read and act on this is another matter, but one well worth investigating

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In the remainder of this presentation I have focussed on how, within the past few years, there has been an explosion in intimacy in Japanese commercials

Originally such intimacy was only foreigner-centered

In the past few years, however, emotional expression has taken more overt forms among Japanese There is suddenly more kissing and hugging going on

The data reveals a very clear pattern: Relative to TV commercials in Japan... Representations of intimacy are on the increase displays of sexuality are pervasive such displays tend to revolve around women As a class, women tend to express emotions in physical form Men are depicted as reluctant or unable to initiate the expression of emotions Men tend to rely on women: to initiate discussions of feelings; to render emotional states in tangible physical form
Because television advertising is a major reproductive force -- at least in potential -- the increasing proportion of messages about intimacy, sexuality, and overt expression of emotion in Japan is significant It is a possible source of influence to be monitored in the years to come At the very least, if ads are merely reflecting valuational changes currently transpiring in society, analyses such as these have utility, of sorts They serve as tools for monitoring the existence of such developments They have the ability to capture for our consideration the messages of possibility -- if not outright change -- circulating within the less visible layer of culture
Once (and not so long ago) all this emotional display was the exclusive province of foreigners. This research has demonstrated that it has now become more in-bounds for Japanese Reading these findings in concert with claims of Japanologists one can imagine the more "liberalizing", "westernized" Japan that so many have fought and fretted over these past 3 decades Whether Japan is actually "turning Western", its advertising communications are. How ad recipients read and act on this is another matter, but one well worth investigating