SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Asian characters rarely appear in Japanese television commercials, while on the other hand Western characters and sceneries are commonplace. Most Japanese-language publications on Japanese TV commercials have already proved this trend quantitatively, yet qualitative work on Japanese TV commercials is scarce. The aim of that paper is to link a quantitative to a qualitative approach in analysing a sample of the year 2002 in both ways while taking the quantitative background into account to elucidate possible developments. In addition, some older commercials were also included in the sample in order to make a possible change in the patterns of representation more evident. Despite an ‘Asia boom’ in Japan throughout the 1990s, which influenced many other popular genres, Japanese TV commercials were by large unaffected of this trend. In 2002, the Chinese characters did not appear in a large number. In addition, they were still the only other Asians in Japanese commercials and their appearance was strongly linked to the product to be advertised (i.e. Oolong Tea and Chinese food). Hence, stereotypes commonly associated with China were used in abundance in order to create a ‘Chinese flair’ for the Japanese product. While in the 1990s, even Chinese stars appeared only in relation to products of Chinese origin, at the beginning of the new millennium, a certain tendency to dissolve the Chinese stars from this background and to present them in a less stereotypical way could be observed.