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Understanding Japanese Material / Information Culture through Television Commercials
Organizer and Chair: Shoji Yamada, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Japan
Television commercials having clear marketing motives reflect the material culture of the period in which they are made. Also, commercials have formed much of the information culture with their messages and communication style. Simply stated, they are the nexus of material and information culture. The first television commercial appeared on Japanese television in 1953. Early on, television commercials were recognized as powerful tools for marketing consumer products and the media industry has produced innumerable messages that work on Japanese consumer psychology. Because these commercials couple impressive visual images with their messages and are aired repeatedly, many are committed to memory by their viewers. For the generation growing up with television, these television commercials have become a culture or at least part of the culture in which they live. Many of the older commercials can be designated "classics" because of their cultural impact. For this reason, television commercials could be recognized as appropriate and unexplored cultural material; they have great possibilities as beneficial research resource for cultural studies. Retrospectively reviewing Japanese television commercials through 1960s to 90s, we will discuss some typical aspects of Japanese material / information culture: the warped image of Hollywood stars; the acceptance of foreign music; the metonymic analysis of the consumers’ life styles and their cars; the social stratification and whiskey consumption; with presenting rare commercial clips.
The Mutual Relationship between Images in Foreign-Celebrity-Appearance Television Commercials in Japan and His/Her Cinematic Images -- or How Television Viewers in Japan Stopped Accepting Them as a Symbolic of a “Focus of Admiration” and Started Accepting Them as a Farce
Takeshi Tanikawa, Graduate School of Political Science, Waseda Unive, Japan
On the television in a family living room in “ordinary” life, a number of commercial messages are shown to the viewers every day, to report the advantages of various products. This fact may be the same in any other country that allows private broadcasting. However, the phenomenon of big movie stars, who may usually be seen only in the “extraordinary” space of a darkened cinema, appearing one after another selling products on TV, may be an aspect of TV culture that has developed uniquely in Japan. As the original reason for why Japan has become a kingdom of such flamboyant foreign-celebrity commercials, the author hypothesizes that foreign movies from which movie stars originate, are accepted as a symbolic of a “focus of admiration” that links directly to a product’s luxury or fashionable quality, which are positive images that an advertiser wants to reinforce through TV commercials. The author also hypothesizes that the meaning of foreign-celebrity commercials in Japan has changed dramatically to the tendency of what is defined as “put-the-celebrity-on-ordinary-situation-in-Japan” oriented type, during the early 1990s. In another words, those new type of foreign-celebrity commercials are “farces” in which any big movie star plays their part as a comedy actor/actress. This presentation will discuss the change of acceptance by viewers in Japan of images of TV commercials with a foreign-celebrity appearance, by showing some of the most talked-about ones, including those of the 1960s and 1970s--the dawning of foreign-celebrity commercials in Japan--and more recent ones.
Non-Domestic Music in Japanese Television Commercials
Hideko Haguchi, Shizuoka Sangyo University, Japan
In the popular music world of contemporary Japan, television plays the leading role in mediating mainstream popular songs to the mass audience. In a trend that has increasingly developed since the mid-1970s, most of the popular songs that dominate the hit charts are broadcast in some way on TV, for example, as advertising songs or as the theme songs of TV dramas. This phenomenon in Japan is called the "tie-up", which means a song and sometimes a singer as well being promoted by a sponsor on TV. Often it is difficult to say which is the main focus of a TV advertisement: the commodity or the song/singer. Most people become familiar with songs and singers through repetition on TV. The same phenomenon occurs not only with Japanese singers or songs but also with non-Japanese ones. The first appearance of a TV commercial performed by non-Japanese singers came in 1961. Since then, it has become an established practice to use non-Japanese artists and songs as a device in TV commercials. These commercials are interesting to audiences mainly because of the exotic feeling that they present, especially toward Western countries, through the interaction of music and visual images. In this research, I focus on the image in selected TV commercial samples which present non-Japanese songs and singers. My approach is in particular to offer a textual analysis of the audio-visual text as an unified whole. My aim is to explain what sort of uses of non-domestic music and how they contribute to an effective advertisement as the audio-visual form in a fifteen-second TV commercial.
Presenting Automobile in Television Commercials: The Issues of Viewer Perception
Noriko Yamashita, Konan Women's University Graduate School, Japan
Television commercials have been creating contemporary culture. With the repeated commercials being televised, a so called "car-loving-culture" has been formed among consumers. Television commercials have been developed along with the motorization of Japanese society. Therefore, the whole history of the Japanese car industry could be seen in television commercials. My study is to investigate the kind of images of cars that are produced and the process by which they are distributed and consumed, paying a special attention to the viewpoint of consumers who are stimulated by automobile advertisements. The goal is to clarify the link between automobile and deeper psyche. In automobile television commercials of the 1960s, the entire car body, the product, and company logos were the essential components presented, functioning as though the viewer were virtually loitering about in a show room. However, with the development and spread of motorization, the viewer’s angle has shifted to the people who use the product. Automobiles types are minutely subdivided--light vehicles, personal cars, family cars, and luxury cars--these link to the user’s social demography, hobbies, preferences, and values. Furthermore, in the more recent commercials of the 1990s, the depiction of the product itself has decreased and the context of the automobile's use is emphasized. The product itself has morphed into an artistic component of a lifestyle and expression through motion and soundtracks that connect with emotions rather than simply the physical object, strengthening the brands and model's image as an ideal component of personal style.
Whiskey Culture and National Identity seen from Suntory’s Television Commercials
Yongmei Wu, Beijing Center for Japanese Studies, China
TV commercials that are deeply connected with daily life are an important means to study the structure and culture of Japan’s highly advanced consumer society. With their condensed catch phrases, impressive images, and imprinting on the minds of audiences, TV commercials indicate the standards for “trendy” fashion together with the advertisement of products. Desire is aroused, and thus a new “sense” for consumption is created. Commercials also create a “culture” that influences social awareness and values beyond the framework of individual product and enterprise. In addition, modes of expression in commercials films, not only symbolically index the atmosphere and current directions, but also reflect the national identity of Japan. Drawing on the All Japan Radio and Television Commercials Confederation (ACC) CM Festival database in the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, this paper tries to show how the Japanese beverage company, Suntory, has caused the wines and spirits which originated in the West to take root in the Japanese dietary culture by creating a common longing among Japanese people through TV commercial promotion. While tracing the transitions and diversities in regard to the whiskey concept since the 1950s, it intends to lead to a comprehension of how Japanese consumer culture is constructed by standards for life stage, gender, occupation and social stratum, how the differences in status and gender and personality distinction are reinforced by TV commercial expressions, and how the Japanese national identity has been reflected in the commercial films.