Japanese Television Research Articles

テレビ広告における「外国人((1))」登場人物像に関する実証的研究 : テレビ広告の内容分析調査

テレビ広告における「外国人((1))」登場人物像に関する実証的研究 : テレビ広告の内容分析調査

放送における自己批判システムの一考察( マス・メディア批判の軸をめぐって)

放送における自己批判システムの一考察( マス・メディア批判の軸をめぐって)

Speaking of sexuality: Analyzing [s] as an index of speaker identity in Japanese

While variation in the production of the voiceless alveolar fricative [s] has been proposed as a marker of alternative sexualities in some languages, this phenomenon has yet to be tested in Japanese. In the present study, data from Japanese television shows and self-uploaded online “coming out” videos are used to sample 600 tokens of word-initial/intervocalic [s] from 20 different speakers: 10 queer men (older camp-gay “onee” celebrities, and younger Youtubers), and 10 men and women who do not identify as gay. Following a moments analysis, spectral center of gravity and skew measurements arose as the clearest delineating variables (i.e., these factors contributed to significant variation in [s] production) between the queer vs. non-queer male groups, as well as the non-queer male vs. non-queer female groups, but not the queer male vs. non-queer female groups. These findings may suggest alignment between Japanese women’s language and Japanese “gay” speech, as has been noted in previous research, but two counter theories are posed. One theory notes the social benefits associated with hyperarticulation that could arise from the usage of these variant phones, while the other theory suggests that non-queer men could be the ones deviating from the norm.

日本のテレビ番組におけるメラネシア表象( マスメディア・人類学・異文化表象)

日本のテレビ番組におけるメラネシア表象( マスメディア・人類学・異文化表象)

Gender Portrayals of Older People in Japanese Television Advertisements

There is extensive research about gender representations in advertisements, but little research has been conducted regarding gender portrayals of older people. Based on a content analysis of 2,972 Japanese television advertisements from 1997 and 2007, we identified gender stereotypes of older people including: a higher percentage of depicted older males than older females, more females in advertising for the cosmetics/toiletries products, and males being shown more often in the workplace and females at home. Surprisingly, gender differences were even more pronounced in 2007 than in 1997, with even more males than females appearing in the television advertisements, and males being depicted more favourably than females. The potential effects of such representations on audiences are discussed based on social cognitive theory and cultivation theory.

Presence of Baudelaire in Today’s Japanese Manga: The Flowers of Evil (Aku no Hana, 2009-2014) by Shuzo Oshimi

Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil) is a manga written and drawn by Shūzō Oshimi between 2009 and 2014. These 11 volumes, which sold more than 2,000,000 copies, were a commercial success, subsequently partially adapted into an animated Japanese television show of 13 episodes, which aired in 2013. 
 Kasuga, the main character of the series, is an adolescent bored with his mediocre life in a rural village. Under the influence of his father, who is also a literature fanatic, he develops a passionate appreciation for Les Fleurs du Mal, even if his reading of the Japanese translation of this complex text does not permit a comprehension of it’s dark and erotic atmosphere. One day, finding himself alone in the classroom, he steals the mini-skirt of the most popular girl in the class, Sakei. The only witness to this perverse act is Nakamura, another girl in the class, who begins to torment Kasuga with the threat of revealing his sexual crime.
 Through the analysis of Baudelaire’s role in this manga, I hope to outline the French poet’s current reception in Japan, which, even if diminished, still exists in this country where French literature has become less popular than it was a half century ago.

Cartoons vs. Manga Movies: A Brief History of Anime in the UK

This paper has as main objective to explore, adopting a historical and critical perspective, the release of film and anime TV in UK. This would be a first step towards the studio of the peculiar implementation of manganime Culture in Britain. Compared with other European countries, UK has shown to be slower and even reluctant in importing Japanese television products. Thus, while major markets of anime such as France, Italy or Spain expanded considerably during 1975-1995 period, in a recurrent synergy of television markets, and technological publishing, the implantation of the principal channel (televised anime) in UK has been irregular and unstable. Even today, the catalogue of broadcasting anime is limited to some high success movies, late night television on thematic channels and quite recently, video-on-demand services (Netflix). The offer cannot be compare in importance and diversity to other European countries. This fact, far from being anecdotal, has had an impact on the subsequent implantation of media Japanese cultures such as manga, anime, video games and cosplay. What can be the reason of this irregular development of Japanese visual culture in United Kingdom? Characteristic having the television market and / or the UK audience? Main hypothesis in relation to these issues can be considered to be of sociological character, but are reflected in the idiosyncrasies of British television culture and production system. Thus, compared to other Western markets (including the US) which saw the opportunity to purchase economic products for children’s television audiences in the late 70s and early 80s, the British ‘telly’ already offered a broad catalogue (Roobarb, Super Ted, Danger Mouse, etc. ...). The only exception to this children’s ‘made in Britain’ programming was the co-production model. This caused a leak of few products that were not even considered as “Japanese” (Seven Cities of Gold, Godzilla) but mere ‘cartoons’. This competition with the British children production as well as the wide catalogue of other forms of British Popular Culture would explain why the film, domestic video and later adults programming would be the marginal routes of entry for manganime.

From West to East to West: A case study on Japanese wine manga translated in French

Author of a dozen reputable works on wine, M. Dovaz composed the foreword for the French translation of the Japanese graphic novel, Kami no Shizuku (2005), released in France as Les Gouttes de Dieu (2008). This manga has become a best-seller in its genre in France while the Japanese television adaptation has also reached a French audience through fansubs, allowing a new generation to gain access to that which had hitherto been seen as its own cultural patrimony.
 
 Integral to this wine culture is the ability to “talk about” its central object, in spite of linguistic or geographical separation. The central challenge being to efficiently associate words to a fleeting sensation provoked by visual, olfactory and gustative experience, a specific linguistic knowledge is necessary for those who wish to claim proficiency in wine. The critical narrative arc and didacticism of wine manga rests in the mastery of lexical sophistication as well as cultural knowledge, a posture also shared by most French experts.
 
 The language of wine, the power center of which once resided in France, has been brought into Japan through the act of translation. This very act has allowed for a shift in power—and thus the potential to represent the wine world—from France to Japan. We will show in this paper that there is an interplay occurring between French and Japanese media, producing a cultural space bridged through wine lexicon used in two series of manga recently translated into French (Sommelier in 2004 and Les Gouttes de Dieu in 2008). 
 
 For this purpose, we will proceed to a comparative analysis of the Japanese source text with the French target text, highlighting metaphors used in wine culture. Through the analysis of the texts, we will demonstrate that the Japanese-French translations of these metaphors allow a new way for the French to see their culture through a lense provided by the Japanese sommelier.

Tearful SojournsandTribal Wives: Primitivism, kinship, suffering, and salvation on Japanese and British reality television

The Japanese and British reality television programs Tearful Sojourns and Tribal Wives both feature protagonists’ adventures and residence in “tribal societies.” Each program constructs different primitivist images through distinct tropes of kinship; Tearful Sojourns fetishizes filiation and consanguinity, while Tribal Wives fetishizes marriage and affinity. The emphasis on descent and affinity reflects and contributes to cultural kinship crises—the breakdown of filial piety in Japan and of marriage in the United Kingdom—felt among their viewers. The shows subtly manipulate images of kinship, the primitive, and suffering to generate a globally mediatized primitivist discourse that purports to therapeutically help audiences find in the primitive Other something they have lost, providing a path to redemption. This discourse contributes in turn to popular perceptions of anthropology. [primitivism, kinship, reality television, media, United Kingdom, Japan] 日本のテレビ番組ウルルン滞在記とイギリスの番組Tribal Wivesでは主要登場人物の「原始的社会」における生活風景が描写されるが、この二つの番組におけるプリミティヴィズムの構築の仕方には親族関係の修辞において違いがある。ウルルンにおいては血族的系統に、Tribal Wives においては婚姻による婚戚関係に重点が置かれている。こうした修辞は、それぞれの社会において広く認識されている家族を巡る文化的危機 – 日本における孝行やイギリスにおける婚姻にまつわる危機の言説 – を反映している。親族関係や「原始的なもの」、苦難といったテーマの番組中の細かな演出は、グローバルな規模で媒介されるプリミティヴィズムの言説を喚起し、近代社会の喪失を「原始的」他者の中に投影する癒し救済の手解きとしてその視聴者に提供される。一方、こういった言説は人類学そのものの社会一般における理解にも影響を与える。[プリミティヴィズム、親族関係、リアリティ番組、メディア、イギリス、日本]

Review

Reviewed by: Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television ed. by Pauline Greenhill, Jill Terry Rudy Amanda Firestone (bio) Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television. Edited by Pauline Greenhill and Jill Terry Rudy. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014. 450pp. As a communication scholar who sometimes dabbles in fairy tales, I was thrilled with the opportunity to review Channeling Wonder. The introduction [End Page 119] notes that this book is the first critical collection that specifically examines “how television channels the wonder of fairy tales” and the “increasing role of other mediated forms such as websites in the distribution, textualization, performance, and reception of traditional and literary tales on TV” (5). These essays provide international (though largely Western) perspectives of stories that are highly familiar and ask readers to look beyond the pleasure found in watching the boob tube toward a more nuanced and critical understanding of the functionality of fairy tales. The book could be an ideal pedagogical companion in teaching the long-reaching effects of these stories. The text is split into four analysis sections and one section devoted to teleography. The introduction is thorough, covering earlier-trod scholarly ground pertaining to the interactivity of fairy tales and TV. The editors wisely include a discussion of the dissension in folklorists’ ranks concerning whether or not the medium is the enemy and/or the death knell of the traditional folktale. The analysis chapters, which are frequently pointed to in the introduction beyond the obligatory chapter recaps, embrace TV as the conduit through which the stories are communicated. I appreciated this as a primer, but the editors and contributors clearly took some things for granted, specifically the inclusion of largely unexplained folklorist lingo, for example, märchen and the ATU index. For my taste, the footnotes do not quite convey their importance, and for the uninitiated reader, this might give the impression that the text as a whole is perhaps too specific for more general media studies purposes. Part I (“For and About Kids and Adults”) “underline[s] how television’s time segmentation, as well as its ideology, presumes specific age groups as audiences” (18). The chapters in this section appear to mark the progression of who televised fairy tales are marketed for, beginning with young children, transitioning to young adults, and finally moving toward an adult viewership. Each essay addresses how both children and adults pick up on the repetitive cues in retelling fairy tales that solidify the conventions for the stories, and more important, when those conventions are purposefully manipulated to produce different meanings for stories. Rudy’s wonderfully dense essay, “Things Jim Henson Showed Us: Intermediality and the Artistic Making of Jim Henson’s The Story Teller,” deeply examines the interworkings of spoken speech, sounds, and visual effects as components that ultimately broaden the experience the viewer has while watching The Story Teller in ways far beyond the capabilities of the printed or read verbatim tale. The chapters in Part II (“Masculinities and/or Femininities”) scrutinize interpretations of sex and gender through both textual analysis and real-world examples. The four essays directly use “Cinderella” or “Sleeping Beauty” as the stepping stones to engage sex and gender problematics and politics. Particularly, each essay discusses how these two staple tales can be [End Page 120] reimagined and reinterpreted to produce a potentially more empowered, agency-oriented experience for viewers. This part also significantly includes two essays that focus on non-Western, Japanese texts—Christie Barber’s “Appearance Does Not Make the Man: Masculinities in Japanese Television Retellings of ‘Cinderella’” and Kirstian Lezubski’s “The Power to Revolutionize the World, or Absolute Gender Apocalypse? Queering the New Fairy-Tale Feminine in Revolutionary Girl Utena.” These two essays specifically tackle masculinities and queer identities, subjects that are largely absent from the other chapters that also examine gender, making them valuable additions to the book. Part III (“Beastly Humans”) focuses around texts “that arguably operate on the edge—if not directly in the middle—of the horror genre” (19). Each essay troubles traditional notions of monstrosity and the ways tales are sometimes adapted to interpret and explore the darker themes more in keeping with “original” texts. Shuli Barzilai’s exceptional essay analyzes...

‘Did you read my mind on that too?’: Empathy and Masculinity in Japanese Film and Television

Empathy involves both affective and cognitive processes: experiencing the other person's emotion and the attribution of theory of mind, which refers to the ability to ascribe an independent mental life to oneself and others. Strategies of engagement used in film and television can invite viewers to apply empathic processes to fictional characters. Such empathic engagement provides stimulation and enjoyment, and prompts viewers to anticipate and integrate information about characters and the narrative. This article examines the ways in which empathic engagement is developed in various Japanese film or television texts. These texts encourage viewers to empathise with young male protagonists who embody forms of marginalised or subordinated masculinity. As a result, the texts not only create a space for viewers to empathise in thought-provoking ways with fictional others, but also invite readers to interpret the protagonists as models of behaviour for dealing with common problems faced by young people, such as the pressure of social expectations and rejection by peers. Further, the films present a challenge to established gender norms through positive portrayals of marginalised or subordinated male protagonists.

Christian Wedding Ceremonies "Nonreligiousness" in Contemporary Japan

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Nobuko, a single Japanese woman in her twenties, dreamed of getting married and, although she was seeing anyone at the time, that did nothing to hinder her ambitions. When I interviewed her she was actively involved in a search for a possible partner, a practice frequently described as konkatsu ?? or activities. Not only did Nobuko have a fairly precise image of the kind of person that she wanted to marry, she had already imagined many of the details of her marriage to a level that was remarkable. Curiously, although Nobuko did consider herself Christian or even religious, she already knew she wanted a Christian wedding ceremony. During the interview, Nobuko expressed an avowed disinterest in the traditional Shinto marriage ceremony (shinzenshiki ???) which, at first, seemed to confirm her dispositions toward religion. However, she expressed a similar disinterest in secular options for marriage (jinzenshiki ???) that exist widely throughout Japan despite the fact that a secular wedding would give her an opportunity to don the white wedding dress that seemed to be a crucial part of her marriage day plans. In Nobuko's mind there was only one form of marriage ceremony for her-a Christian wedding. For Nobuko, secular weddings were just made up (tsukurimono ???) and not (honkakuteki ja nai ???????) marriages.Nobuko dreamed of appearing, along with her future husband, before a Christian minister in a church to make their vows before God and witnesses who would respond by blessing their union with the sincerity of their prayers. To Nobuko, such a wedding was the perfect embodiment of happiness, it would set her marriage off properly, and propel her happiness and the happiness of her husband into the future. A Christian marriage ceremony meant a happy, prosperous, and above all, successful marriage in a future that might be fraught with troubles and uncertainties but also filled with hope and promise. Furthermore, it was backed by the guarantee of authenticity afforded to it as part of the Christian tradition. According to Nobuko, in these respects the secular wedding could compare. Moreover, in contrast to her statements regarding her personal identity in which she described herself as nonreligious or mushukyo ???, Nobuko felt that Christian weddings were religious and that they should be because no marrying couple would expect anything less.Nobuko and her dreams of a Christian wedding are a rarity in contemporary Japan where, for at least the last decade, the majority of individuals wed in a Christian ceremony. Although widely popular, the Christian wedding ceremo- nies of contemporary Japan are frequently discussed as unequivocally secular,1 mere scenery,2 or evidence of the Japanese obsession with fashion and conspicuous consumption.3 Moreover, Christian weddings are frequently treated as religiously inauthentic based upon the fact that those participating (particularly the bride and groom) claim to be nonreligious. Undoubtedly, the widely televised celebrity weddings of actor Miura Tomokazu and vocalist Yamaguchi Momoe in 1980 and that of the superstars Kanda Masaki and Matsuda Seiko in 1985 did much to inspire consumer trends and generate interest in Christian weddings. The church used in Kanda Masaki and Matsuda Seiko's wedding ceremony even became the setting of the 1991 Japanese television series Itsu ka, sarejio kyokai de ? ? ? ,? ? ? ? ? ? ? and one of the more popular venues in the early years of the rise of Christian weddings. In the following, I hope to restore some balance to the argument surrounding the religiosity of Christian weddings by further exploring statements of nonreligiousness.In 1991, one particularly striking example of the debate over authentic religion and the role of faith claims appeared in two articles in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies entitled, What Constitutes Religious Activity? …

Do Global Brands Use Similar Executional Styles Across Cultures? A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Television Advertising

A major development in global marketing research is the evolution of global consumer culture theory and the notion that global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) strategies can be effective across markets. This study compares the content of a large sample of U.S. versus Japanese television advertising and looks at several executional variables (timing and counting variables) used in prior studies to explore whether global brands use more similar executions across the United States and Japan in comparison with local brands. Results indicate fewer differences for global brands on these dimensions. This pattern of results appears to be consistent with the notion that the use of GCCP strategies aimed at responding to the trend toward global consumer culture have taken hold and that for global brands it is more possible to standardize executions, in addition to strategy, than was the case in the past. However, results suggest that the amount of time that visuals are on screen is more difficult to standardize than other elements of the ad, and that ads for services show somewhat more similarities than ads for physical products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

基于电视剧的日语寒暄语的实证研究—以“用餐前后的寒暄语”为中心

有关日语“用餐前后的寒暄语”即「いただきます」和「ごちそうさま」的研究并不多见，通常是简单介绍，没有实际的数据，结论缺乏客观性。本文从4部电视剧中挑出“用餐前后的寒暄语”进行实证研究，分别从3个场景入手，考察二者的使用对象、实际含义，并通过统计调查数据归纳出二者的使用现状，同时总结出其中反映的日本文化。 The study concerning two greetings of Japanese which are ITADAKIMASU and GOTISOSAMA used before and after dinner is rare, usually brief, there is no real data and conclusions lack of objectivity. This paper abstracts two greetings used before and after dinner from four Japanese television dramas for conducting an empirical study. The author started from three scenarios to analyze the using objects and practical meanings, summed up the using status of abovementioned two greet-ings via statistical data, and summarized the Japanese culture reflected from it.

‘Stupidest of all the primates’

This article examines the effect of linguistic anxiety on identity by analyzing the use of English in Japanese television from the perspective of Sociocultural Linguistics. Close analysis of segments from Japanese television entertainment programs shows how both verbal and visual intertextual resources are used to create linguistic anxiety at the micro level of personal interaction, on the macro level of government policy and television genre, and also at meso levels that exist between both the macro and micro. Semiotic resources such as costumes, set design, subtitles, and other elements in the mediascape allow for circulation of ideologies from government policies into assessments of individuals. The role of meso level discourse in the bidirectional transmission of linguistic anxiety between the macro levels of society and the micro levels of personal interaction is discussed.

Taiga dramas and tourism: historical contents as sustainable tourist resources

Taiga dramas are one of the flagship events of the Japanese television year. These historical drama series, broadcast on NHK General over the course of a year in Sunday evening prime time, have induced large-scale tourism to sites related to the events depicted in the dramas. This article investigates the scopes and natures of the tourism booms induced by two dramas set in the Bakumatsu (1853–1868) period: Shinsengumi! in 2004 and Ryōma-den in 2010. Analysis of the impacts these dramas had in Hakodate, Kōchi, Hino and Kyoto reveals the complex dynamics of heritage tourism generated by NHK’s dramas. In addition to the narrative qualities of the drama, the scale and nature of the tourism boom are determined by factors such as prevailing economic conditions and the infrastructure capabilities of regions/locations to cash in on the influx of tourists. The predictable, annual tourism boom induced by NHK’s dramas makes the series an important case study within the broader field of film-induced tourism.

Korean and Japanese Television Drama and Architecture

Korean and Japanese Television Drama and Architecture

Television Content Exports as a Key to Success of the “Cool Japan” Initiative

Japanese modern culture and way of life are internationally recognized as “cool” (“kakko-ii”). Japanese animation, music like “J-pop” and publications such as comics (“manga”) have deep-rooted fans globally, and Japanese fashion is popular among young people overseas who feel it is “cute” (“kawaii”). The “Cool Japan” Initiative is the official support scheme to introduce “Cool Japan”, the attractiveness of Japanese modern culture and way of life, worldwide. And it is expected that Japanese television content exports will be one of the effective means to demonstrate “Cool Japan” globally. This research report starts with an explanation of the current state of Japanese television content exports, and provides a comparison of television content exports between Japan and Korea, where the latter became phenomenally popular in Japan in the mid-2000s. Then, it considers what is needed now for Japanese television content exports as a key to success of the “Cool Japan” Initiative. Furthermore, in order to draw up mid-term and long-term strategies for promoting Japanese television content exports, it also examines the creative industry initiatives in the UK, where television content exports have nearly doubled from 2004 to 2010. Lastly, the report discusses the problems and prospects of Japanese television content exports in the context of the “Cool Japan” Initiative as a Japanese national strategy, while touching on the Ultra-High Definition TV (4K/8K) Initiatives.

“Cool” English: Stylized Native-Speaker English in Japanese Television Shows

AbstractThis article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (

Should Men Work Outside and Women Stay Home? Revisiting the Cultivation of Gender-Role Attitudes in Japan

Despite recent societal changes, the stereotyped images of men as providers and women as homemakers are prevalent on Japanese television. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between television viewing and attitudes toward the traditional gender-role notion that men work outside and women take care of the family and home. Data from the Japanese General Social Surveys from 2000 to 2008 indicate that television viewing is positively related to traditional gender-role attitudes. Data also reveal mainstreaming patterns by sex, age, education, and political orientation. Further, the observed cultivation and mainstreaming patterns were not contingent upon time. Implications are discussed in terms of the role of television in the realization of a gender-equal society in Japan.