Chapter 5: Conclusions

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Bibliography

Copyright John Worth; originally published 1997

Summary of Analysis

Women were shown to be in the home or, rather, were not shown to be at work. The three locations where women were predominantly shown were home, outdoors, and other. (The other category, as the coders noted, was predominantly a studio setting with a blank background.) It can be said, then, that women were shown tied to the home; part of the research question has been answered. However, the data also suggests that women are not tied solely to the home; rather, a certain independence is also shown, signified by the presence of women outdoors in a fairly large percentage of the sample.

The second part of the research question said women would be tied to their families. There is a careful distinction to be found here. Just because a woman is shown in the home does not preclude that she is shown with her family. This study found that women were not shown as tied to the family; only a small number of commercials even put the woman with her family. However, ‘woman as independent’ was also unsupported, as women were rarely shown eating alone or playing sports (though twice as many women were shown eating alone as eating with their family). There is no role for women, then, when their actions are examined. Most, as the coders noted, were simply spokespersons for the product and were either using or explaining it to the greater viewing audience.

Suggestions for Future Study

What is needed in the future are qualitative studies that investigate the role women play beyond quantifiable elements. The connection with programming, in particular, could provide interesting data that will enable researchers to further understand the way programming and advertising combine to affect society and culture. Research is also needed into the history of television advertising in Japan. Without some concept of how things have changed it is difficult to determine exactly where things are going.

One area this study did not focus on was language. Communication occurs on at least two interactive planes. One involves the physical; how a person looks, stands, or acts. The other is verbal; the words a person uses, the inflection, the dialect. This study was exclusively concerned with the former. The reason for this is simple: visual images are easier to code. However, in choosing to limit the study in this way only half of the picture has been painted. Interpretation of language, however, requires specialized training and time so as to accurately catch and interpret the individual nuances that naturally exist in verbal communication.

This study deleted commercials for television shows, movies and music. The primary reason for this was that, particularly in the case of television shows and movies, the images of the woman are not manufactured solely for the sale of the product; further, in the case of movies, simple visual analysis shows that many of those ads are for non-Japanese movies. Also, such products do not fit into the product categories designed for this study.

Finally, in the future researchers need to distinguish between the literal and interpretive roles given to women. An office lady, for example, might be shown at work; however, the fact that she is an office lady (usually this means secretary) does not in any way indicate a deviation from the 'traditional' role. In fact, the opposite is true. Also, age is important to this interpretation. This study was only concerned with the woman's role as defined by visual images. Future research can build upon this and test the results against a broader spectrum of advertising and the greater possibilities of roles that are possible in Japanese society.

Conclusion

It remains to be seen how the Japanese woman has been affected by the constant assault of images and ideals about who she should be and the role she should take. This belongs in the arena of scholarly speculation, where the results of studies such as this are tossed into the teeth of society to be either swallowed or spat out. The end result is that the Japanese woman has changed; research can measure how and where and maybe even why, but is not capable of give precise predictions on the future of such change.

This much can be said about the Japanese woman. In the past century, perhaps she, more than her male counterpart, has evolved the furthest, because she had the longest road to travel. She is still not portrayed as the equal of a man, not shown as a working woman. Having no historical precedent, it is impossible to know if these images have changed in any way. Most likely, they have; this is an area where future research should focus.

Is advertising a catalyst for social change, or does it merely react to the trends that exist in society? If the former is accepted, then Japanese women are not being pushed too hard to change; commercials show women in the home. If the latter opinion is true, then Japanese society (which, remember, in terms of business and government is male dominated), holds to the values that put the woman in non-working situations.

In The Japanese Today, Edwin Reischauer noted that culture is readily absorbed in Japanese society. An essential reason for this is the “extraordinary uniformity” Japanese society had when ‘opened’ to the West. Societal institutions support this; schools, for example, offer almost the same education across the nation.

The mass media, too, play an important role in the shaping of a uniform Japanese society. All media, print or broadcast, contain uniform content, show similar types of shows. Though not an objective of this study, it did show a relative uniformity within the advertising.

The study showed, above all else, that Japanese society has created two roles for women. Yet this has always, to a certain extent, been true. In pre-Meiji Japan the country had multiple roles for women, especially women who were not members of the upper classes. The farmer’s wife, while perhaps wanting to be like the samurai-class women, had to care for the family, a full-time occupation in itself, but also the home. So the modern woman, too, has the same dual role. In many respects she has changed little in a hundred years. Yet, in one important way, she has changed. The two roles are no longer housewife and house laborer; the former still appears to be present, at least in the advertising. The latter is somewhat diminished. More important is the second role of independent person, especially among younger women.

However, as noted in Chapter One, recent surveys have indicated that housewives have a great deal of satisfaction with their lives. If advertising is even to a small degree a mirror of society, then this study has supported the prior surveys. But women were not shown as blindly dedicated to their families. Perhaps a future study could determine if there is a connection between the lifestyle satisfaction and relative independence.

Advertising and society are intertwined. This study has, hopefully, added to the growing body of research which helps explain this relationship, particularly in Japan..

Women in Japan are portrayed in dual roles. These roles seem to mirror the general position of women in society. How society has changed over time, though, has not been found; future study is needed in this area.