Japanese television as a window on other cultures

Transcription

1 Japanese Psychological Research 1998, Volume 40, No. 4, Special Issue: Japanese social life in transition Japanese television as a window on other cultures SHIGERU HAGIWARA Institute for Media and Communications Research, Keio University, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo , Japan Abstract: Beginning with a brief review of issues regarding the effects of television on viewers in Japan, this paper examines how foreign programming and features relating to other countries are utilized on terrestrial television, the most influential of the mass media today. Foreign cultures are introduced either through importation of programs from abroad or through indigenous programs dealing with such topics. An overview of the changing role of imported programs emphasizes comparison of the public and commercial networks. News reporting and commercials are highlighted in a discussion of the treatment of foreign cultures in indigenous programs. Survey results show that Japanese people are favorably disposed toward foreign program imports, suggesting that the major reason for the failure of imported programs to flourish in Japan is the strong competition offered by domestic productions, not xenophobic attitudes on the part of viewers. I also consider the distinguishing characteristics of television and the cinema in order to explain the popularity of films as opposed to television dramas from abroad. In conclusion, studies that examine the effects of television on viewers perceptions of foreign cultures are presented to suggest the importance of analyzing images of foreign cultures as depicted in programs that are domestically produced, rather than analyzing those that are imported. Key words: television, stereotyping, imported programs, commercials, news reporting. As television came to play an increasingly important role in Japanese society, a number of concerns were raised over its potential influence on viewers. Parents were particularly worried about adverse effects on performance at school and on the intellectual development of their children. However, survey results for the early 1960s, when television was rapidly expanding, failed to detect significant differences between school children who regularly watched television and those who did not in terms of scholastic performance, passivity, and other measures of mental health (Furu, 1962; Yoda, 1964). Japanese parents were, thus, concerned more about time taken up by television that might otherwise be used for desirable activities such as studying than about the content of television programs being watched. A survey that examined, among other things, how parents of fourth- to sixth-graders regulated television viewing in the home showed that the most severe restriction was imposed on the particular time slot, followed by total hours of television viewing, indicating that content of programming was not the predominant criterion of regulation (NHK Public Opinion Survey, 1985). As for the possible content effects of television, while violence in children s programs has been one of the most seriously debated issues in many countries, Japanese parents seem to be more concerned about how television 1998 Japanese Psychological Association. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

2 222 S. Hagiwara affects their children s manners and morality. When asked to name specific programs they do not want their children to watch, parents usually mention lowbrow variety shows and animated cartoons known for poor taste, even if they do not include displays of violence. Apart from the effects of televised violence on behavior among children and youths, an issue regarding television content that has been widely discussed relates to socialization and perception of social reality. Even for televised violence, Gerbner and his colleagues have argued that its effect in terms of cultivation of beliefs and perceptions of the world as violent and dangerous may be more significant than its direct effects on aggressiveness (e.g., Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Gerbner, Gross, Eleey, Jackson- Beeck, Jeffries-Fox, & Signorielli, 1977; Gerbner, Gross, Jackson-Beeck, Jeffries-Fox, & Signorielli, 1978). Most studies on socialization take the form of content analyses concerning gender, race, occupation, age, and consumer roles, and the findings are utilized to test the impact of television on people s beliefs about various social roles and perceptions of social reality. In constructing social reality, mass-mediated information generally plays a greater role in domains where we do not have direct experience or other means to test its veracity. In this sense, it can be said that what we know about foreign countries and people is largely determined by the mass media, since most of us have limited personal contact with people from other countries or travel experiences abroad. Foreign culture is introduced on television in a number of ways. In addition to terrestrial broadcasting of imported programs and domestically produced programs dealing with other countries or cultures, a greater number and variety of foreign programs are now available on satellite television, via broadcasting satellite (BS) and communication satellite (CS) channels. The recent inauguration of digital satellite broadcasting, such as PerfecTV, has further expanded the number of channels specializing in foreign television programming. Advances in satellite telecommunications have given us much easier access to the various cultures depicted on our television screens, but viewership of satellite channels is still limited. Even though the number of subscriber households to BS and CS channels has sharply increased, the members of those households continue to watch mainly terrestrial television programs, spending little time on the newly acquired satellite channels. According to the most recent audience rating survey, conducted by NHK in June 1997, in which a total of 3,600 respondents recorded their television viewing in diary form for a week, the average viewing time over a week-long period was reported to be 3 hours and 34 minutes per day (Yoshida & Aramaki, 1997). Of this total viewing, however, the time respondents as a whole spent watching satellite television was found to average only 3 minutes a day. For those respondents who had satellite broadcast receiving equipment (28% of the total), more than half (62%) indicated that they had not tuned into satellite channels during the week, and average viewing of satellite channels increased only to 11 minutes per day when the sample was limited to those who had satellite receiving equipment. In this article I focus on issues related to television stereotyping of foreign cultures, based on studies I conducted privately or as a member of the ITFP-Japan research team. 1 These studies are admittedly descriptive, not theoretically oriented, and intended to answer the following questions. To what extent are foreign-made programming and foreign-related material utilized on Japanese television and how are various foreign cultures depicted? How do Japanese people respond to imported 1 As part of a much larger project on international information flow, proposed by the International Institute of Communications, a Japanese research team (ITFP- Japan) was originally formed in 1979 to record imported television programs broadcast in Japan and Japanese television programs exported to other countries. Under the leadership of Professors Kazuo Kawatake of Komazawa Women s University and Meiko Sugiyama of Tokyo Women s Christian University, it later expanded its research activities, and conducted a series of joint studies on media stereotyping in collaboration with researchers from various countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Germany.

3 Japanese television as a window on other cultures 223 television programs and evaluate their quality and possible impact? Since satellite television viewership is currently limited, I shall analyze how material related to foreign countries is utilized on terrestrial television, where other cultures are introduced either by importation of programs from abroad or by domestically produced programs dealing with topics related to other parts of the world. Imported programs The dominance of the United States in the international trade in television programs is well documented, causing the issue of cultural imperialism to be raised not only in the Third World but also in some Western industrialized countries. In Japan, however, foreign-produced programs have not flourished, except in the early years of television history, from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, when quite a few U.S. serial dramas were broadcast at prime time and enjoyed very high ratings. With the subsequent development of the domestic television industry, the popularity of imported programs gradually diminished, and they were replaced by indigenous programs from around the mid- 1960s onward, resulting in a decreased percentage of foreign programs in total broadcast hours and a shift from prime time to fringe hours. Even though there is no quota on the importation of television resources, the percentage of foreign programs has remained low ever since. Consequently, cultural imperialism through domestic television programming has not become a serious issue in Japan, nor has the content of imported programs been the topic of public controversy. When Varis (1974) investigated major television stations in 53 countries in 1971, the percentage of imported programs in Japan was reported to be 1% on NHK Educational, 4% on NHK General, and an average of approximately 10% on the commercial networks, which was already the second lowest in the non-socialist world after the United States, and the fourth lowest if China and the Soviet Union were included. In a more thorough study conducted by ITFP-Japan, which examined the entire programming of seven key stations in Tokyo between October 1980 and September 1981, it was found that the proportion of foreign resources had dropped further to account for only 4.9% of total broadcast time (Sugiyama, 1982). It was also shown that, of all the imported programs, 78.1% came from North America, 19.3% from Western Europe, 1.3% from Asia, and 0.3% from Oceania, thus confirming U.S. dominance in the international flow of popular culture. A more recent follow-up study by ITFP- Japan, which analyzed all programs aired by the seven Tokyo-based stations from July to December 1993, indicated that there has been virtually no change in the ratio of imported programs in the past 10 years or so (Hagiwara, 1995a; Kawatake, 1994). Broadly interpreted to include satellite broadcasts of overseas sports events as well as dramas produced jointly by Japanese and foreign companies, the data included 1,328 imported programs broadcast during the survey period with a total broadcast time of 1,428 hours and 28 minutes. These accounted for 5.2% of total broadcast time during the period, but if satellite broadcasts of sports events from abroad are considered to be domestically produced and are removed from the imported program classification, the figure declines to 4.7%. There has been some change, however, in the use of imported programs between the public and the commercial networks. NHK, the public network, had previously relied less on imported programs than the commercial networks, but since the latter half of the 1980s it has adopted the policy of allotting them more air time. The latest survey shows that while the proportion of imported programs on the commercial networks dropped from 6.1% in 1980 to 5.5% in 1993, it rose to an average of 4.1% from the previously recorded 2% on the two NHK channels, narrowing the gap between the two. Programs from North America and Europe account for over 95% of the total, demonstrating once again that the overwhelming majority of imported programs shown in Japan come from the Western industrialized

4 224 S. Hagiwara Table 1. Percentage (no.) of imported programs by region of origin and by genre for commercial and public networks, July 1 December 31, 1993 Total Commercial networks Public networks By region of origin a North America 60.4% (740) 79.7% (531) 37.3% (209) Europe 35.2% (431) 15.6% (104) 58.4% (327) Asia 3.0% (37) 3.9% (26) 2.0% (11) Oceania 1.2% (15) 0.6% (4) 2.0% (11) Other 0.2% (3) 0.2% (1) 0.3% (2) By genre Feature film 32.8% (436) 54.9% (421) 2.7% (15) Drama 28.5% (379) 28.7% (220) 28.3% (159) Cartoon 22.3% (296) 5.9% (45) 44.7% (251) Sports 6.3% (83) 10.6% (81) 0.4% (2) Other 10.1% (134) 0.0% (0) 23.9% (134) a Excludes programs in which country of production was not indicated. nations, especially the United States (see Table 1). The proportion of U.S. programs on the commercial networks is nearly 80% and on NHK 35%, indicating that the commercial networks rely much more heavily on U.S. programs. As far as program content is concerned, over 80% of imported programs are works of fiction, including feature films, dramas, and cartoons. Here again, differences between the commercial networks and NHK are apparent. While over half the programs imported by the commercial networks are feature films, only 3% of NHK imports are in that genre. Imported programs shown on NHK s General channel are mainly serial dramas, while the NHK Educational channel shows documentaries, cartoons, and educational programs rather than feature films. In the six-month period covered in the survey, only 11% (141 programs) of the 1,328 imported programs aired were shown during prime time (7 to 11 p.m.). Not only does Japanese television broadcast a very small proportion of imported programs, but they are not shown at peak viewing hours. The commercial networks, which broadcast almost around the clock, tend to show foreign movies like old feature films, second-rate films, or rebroadcasts of feature films in the late-night hours; nearly 60% of imported programs on the commercial networks were aired after midnight. One of the reasons for the rapid decline in imported programs on Japanese television after the mid-1960s was that as domestic programs grew in popularity, there was necessarily a decline in the viewing audience for imported programs (Ito, 1990). Even today, the number of viewers of imported programs is generally low, except for broadcasts of foreign feature films which were box-office successes. In general, television viewership is largely defined by broadcast time. Therefore, the low proportion of imported programs shown during prime time means that viewership of imported programs as a whole is low. This indicates that many Japanese broadcasters do not believe that imported programs will attract large audiences. The commercial networks import few programs other than feature films because they are unlikely to attain high ratings, and almost never show them at prime time. NHK, which does not have to rely on advertising revenues for income, is in a position to be less sensitive to viewer ratings than its commercial counterparts, and thus has the leeway to air high-quality

5 Japanese television as a window on other cultures 225 programs. Accordingly, when NHK buys foreign programs, they are not expensive hit films but serial dramas, cartoons, educational programs, or documentaries, all genres unlikely to attract a large viewership. Depiction of foreign culture in domestically produced programs While the majority of imported programs are works of fiction, there are few Japaneseproduced television dramas set wholly or partially in foreign countries or with characters of other nationalities featuring regularly. Indigenous programs that deal with a foreign topic are, thus, largely confined to nonfiction programs such as news, documentaries, quiz and variety shows. In a content analysis of foreign-related material that appeared on Japanese television, excluding news programs and commercials, Hagiwara, Midooka, and Nakamura (1987) located a total of 66 programs, 37 fiction and 29 nonfiction, that dealt with foreign countries and/or people in the entire programming of seven terrestrial channels in Tokyo during one week in June Whereas all 37 fiction programs were imported, 32 from the United States, only two foreign-made programs, both U.S. productions, were included in the 29 nonfiction programs analyzed. Because all fiction works were imported, the programs were set in foreign countries with no Japanese characters involved, but the nonfiction programs included the portrayal of foreigners in Japan as well as Japanese people in foreign countries. Moreover, in contrast to the fiction programs, which were mostly set in the United States, the subject matter of the nonfiction programs ranged over a much wider geographical area, including countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Central and South America, although it was again the United States that appeared most often. It was also found that the themes or subject matter of the nonfiction programs were closely related to the country in which the scene was set. For example, daily life/manners/ customs, nature/scenery, history/cultural legacy, meals/cooking were the categories of themes most often found in programs dealing with countries other than the United States and rarely chosen for programs dealing with the United States. Subsequent ITFP-Japan studies have indicated that domestically produced television programs dealing with foreign cultures further increased to account for more than 10% of all terrestrial programming in 1993, even when excluding news programs from the analysis. Of the 1,632 programs aired by Tokyo s seven stations in a sample week in November 1993, 217, or 13%, were Japanese-produced programs mainly dealing with foreign countries. Of these 217 programs, 95% were nonfiction programs in the categories of practical, documentary, music, or education and culture (Kawatake, 1994). Nearly half of the programs were related to the United States, accounting for the largest proportion among the 52 countries covered in this survey period, followed by the United Kingdom, France, China, and Germany. News reporting This kind of bias in the coverage of various nations is more evident in international information flow as observed in television news programs, which constitute the major source of information about foreign cultures. Since the mid-1980s, news and information programs have shown a remarkable increase in air time and have started to gain higher audience ratings on Japanese television. The composition of foreign and domestic news items broadcast varies, depending on time periods and types of program, but most studies have shown that Japanese news programs devote an average of about one-third of the items presented to stories related to other countries. In an ITFP-Japan comparative study of one week s television news from eight countries, conducted in November 1980, Kawatake (1983) reported the average proportion of international news to be 38% on NHK and 36% on TBS, both lower than for news programs of networks in other nations, such as CBS in the United States, the BBC in the United Kingdom, ABC in Australia, RTM in

6 226 S. Hagiwara Malaysia, and HK-TVB in Hong Kong. A follow-up study conducted in May 1989 of evening news on NHK and TBS showed a similar proportion of international news, that is, 34% of items and 32% of air time (Kawatake & Sugiyama, 1990). Further, in a study that compared news programs in different time slots evening news starting at 6 p.m. and nightly news broadcasts after 9 p.m. on NHK, TBS and ANB, for a two-week period from September to October 1990, Hagiwara (1992) found that news related to other countries received greater emphasis on the programs broadcast later. While international news accounted for 26% of items and 29% of air time for the evening news as a whole, these figures rose to 38% and 42%, respectively, for nightly news broadcasts after 9 p.m. Throughout these studies the United States always heads the list of countries that receive the most news coverage, followed by neighboring Asian countries (China and Korea), the Soviet Union (now Russia), and Western European countries (France, the United Kingdom, and Germany), although the order of these countries changes from time to time. The imbalance of international news flow has long been debated, as the unidirectional flow from the highly developed to the less developed countries has proved to be the rule rather than the exception. In this regard Ito (1990) described the process of Japan s postwar change from news importer to news exporter on the basis of the increase of Japan s influence in the world economy and politics. Although the balance of information flow from and into Japan in the field of news reporting followed the typical pattern of a developing country until the 1960s, Japan began to receive complaints from other Asian countries that the Japanese media did not cover them as much as they covered Japan. Since the end of the 1970s, coverage of Japan in the mass media in the rest of the world has improved enough for it to be either about the same as or more than Japanese coverage of these countries except for the three political-military superpowers, namely the United States, the Soviet Union (now Russia), and China, where Japan s trade balance in news reporting is still in the red. As to the information gap between Japan and the United States, a recent study by NHK and the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs in the United States showed that Japan s major news programs awarded 12 times the amount of programming to U.S. stories than U.S. networks devoted to Japanese stories, based on an analysis of five prime time news programs in the respective countries for September 1992 to May 1993 (see Akuto, 1995). It also pointed out that, while U.S. news coverage of Japan is largely confined to serious economic and political issues, Japan s interest in the United States is wider in scope, ranging from trivial social occurrences to momentous political problems. Commercials Another genre of Japanese television broadcasting that frequently refers to other countries and cultures is commercials. Regarding the symbolic value of foreign languages when used in Japanese commercials, Haarmann (1989, p. 9) notes, Japanese commercials in the mass media are a domain of communication where ethnocultural stereotypes and social clichés play the most active role in modern life. Besides the extensive use of foreign languages, particularly English, Japanese television commercials also employ foreigners, celebrities or not, and scenes set in foreign countries to evoke the intended stereotypes in the viewer s mind. There are a number of studies that highlight the significant role such foreign features, especially those related to Western cultures, play in Japanese television commercials (Forum for Citizens Television (FCT), 1991; Haarmann, 1989; Hagiwara, 1994; Hiyoshi, 1997; Kozakai, 1996; Ramaprasad & Hasegawa, 1990; Yasutake, 1983). Focusing on non-japanese characters and landscapes utilized in commercials broadcast between 7 and 9 p.m. for a sample week in June 1990, the FCT study showed that 636 out of 2,219 commercials analyzed, or 29%, included either of these foreign features. It was also confirmed that images of Western cultures

7 Japanese television as a window on other cultures 227 predominated in these commercials: more than 80% of the characters were classified as Caucasian and about 70% of the background scenery appeared to be set in North America or Europe. Similarly, Haarmann (1989) reported that foreign characters appeared in 24.8% and foreign places in 15.8% of the 1,055 commercials sampled in a week during April The percentage of commercials that included non-japanese characters naturally varies among these studies for example 15% (Hagiwara, 1994), 16.9% (Yasutake, 1983), 17.9% (Hiyoshi, 1997), and 19.8% (Kozakai, 1996) because of different sampling procedures and definitions of foreign employed in each study, but it is consistently found that Caucasians constitute the vast majority. In a study that analyzed 4,010 commercials broadcast during June 1993, Hagiwara (1994) distinguished five categories of foreign features: characters, background scenery, languages in written texts, speech, and background music. Of these categories, written text in foreign languages was most extensively used, in 2,324 commercials, or 57.9%, since the Roman alphabet is often used for spelling company and brand names. Foreign languages, notably English, were spoken by characters or by narrators in 17.1% and used in background music in 9% of the sampled commercials. As to foreign characters and places, the former appeared in 15% and the latter in 13.3%, and commercials that included either of these elements accounted for 19% of the total, indicating that foreigners in foreign countries were the most frequent combination used in Japanese commercials. Of the 599 commercials in which foreigners appeared, except for the 8.3% that used a combination of different races, Caucasians constituted the vast majority, accounting for 78% of the total, followed by Asians (9.3%), and blacks (3.2%). Looking at the most prominent group of young characters, it was found that females appeared more often than males among Caucasians, in contrast to appearances of blacks in television commercials, where males were more frequent than females. For Asian characters, a mixture of males and females of different age brackets was often employed, rather than featuring a particular sex or age bracket. As it is often difficult to specify the name of the country in which a commercial was set, background scenes were classified, based on images, as one of four regions: North America, Europe, Asia, and others. There were a total of 532 commercials judged as having been set in foreign countries. Excluding 186 scenes that could not be classified by region, North America accounted for 30.1%, Europe 32.9%, Asia 12.4%, and others 24.6% of the foreign scenes in total, thus confirming again that foreign elements used in Japanese commercials are disproportionately slanted toward U.S. and European culture. Furthermore, it was found that each region was associated with different images of population density. When a scene was set in North America, it was most likely to be in a metropolitan area, whereas European scenes were staged in either a city or in the countryside, and remote or scenic places were more often utilized for settings in Asia and other regions. Japanese attitudes toward foreign television programming For terrestrial television, it has been repeatedly shown that foreign-produced programs continue to account for a very low percentage of programming, though elements relating to other countries play an increasingly important role in domestically produced programs, including news and commercials. Except for popular foreign movies broadcast during prime time, Japanese television today does not show any imported program that attracts large audiences. This forms a striking contrast to movie theater, where imported films tend to attract larger audiences than domestic productions. Despite the public s obvious attraction to foreign films, why do imported television programs fail to do well? In order to gauge Japanese attitudes toward foreign television programming, Hagiwara (1995b) conducted a questionnaire survey in the Tokyo metropolitan area and outlying cities from December

8 228 S. Hagiwara 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Figure 1. At present Tokyo metropolitan area (N = 416) In the past Outlying cities (N = 110) Viewers of imported programs at present and in the past by region of residence (based on data from Hagiwara, 1995b) to January The number of respondents totaled 526 (319 male and 207 female), ranging in age from 12 to 90 (average age 31.7). I will here summarize the major findings of the survey, which contained questions about actual viewing of television and films, consumption and evaluation of foreign media products, and perceptions of the possible effects of importing foreign television programs. First of all, the survey results confirmed that viewers of imported programs in Japan are relatively few. Of all respondents, 10.5% said there was at least one imported program they watched regularly, and only one-third said there was an imported program they had often watched in the past. These figures stood at 1.8% and 24.1%, respectively, for respondents living outside Tokyo, showing that these viewers have even less contact with foreign television programs (Figure 1). There was no significant age difference recorded for the viewership of foreign programs in the past, though it was initially expected that older respondents, who experienced the heyday of U.S. serial dramas in the late 1950s to 1960s, might give more positive answers to this question. 2 But Japanese people do not necessarily evaluate imported programs negatively. When asked to estimate the ratio of imported programs to the overall programming of terrestrial channels, though a wide range of figures were recorded, they averaged 14.3%, considerably above the actual ratio (approximately 5%). Further, although this ratio had remained virtually unchanged over the previous decade, 47.4% of respondents answered that the ratio of foreign programming had increased, more than the 28.6% who said that it had decreased or the 24.0% who felt that it was unchanged. Even though the presence of imported programs was perceived as greater than the actual figures warrant, 51.7% of respondents felt that there should be more imported programs, more than the 47.1% who answered that they were satisfied with current levels. Only 1.1% thought that there should be fewer imported programs. It was further confirmed that those respondents who thought foreign programming had increased over the previous 10 years had actually estimated the current proportion of air time as higher than those who did not see any significant change or who thought it had decreased, the means of the estimated proportions of foreign programming being 16.9%, 14.0%, and 10.1% for these groups, respectively (Table 2). Even though more than half of the respondents believed that there should be more imported programs, it did not necessarily mean they felt that foreign-produced programs were superior to domestic ones. When asked whether they thought foreign programs were better than domestic programs, 13.9% of respondents said that foreign-produced programs were superior, a larger number than 2 More recent programs, including rebroadcasts, such as Little House on the Prairie, Murder She Wrote, and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, were frequently listed, regardless of respondents ages, when they were asked to give specific titles of foreign programs they used to watch in the past, although a few listed older titles broadcast in the 1960s, such as Lassie, Ben Casey, and Rawhide.

9 Japanese television as a window on other cultures 229 Table 2. Breakdown of answers to two questions on the quantity of foreign programs broadcast in Japan Percentage (no.) of respondents Estimated percentage of air timea Perceived changes in the proportion of foreign programming over the past 10 years Has decreased No significant change Has increased 28.6% (149) 24.0% (125) 47.4% (247) 10.1% 14.0% 16.9% Evaluation of the current proportion of foreign programs Too little Just right Too much 51.7% (270) 47.1% (246) 1.1% (6) 11.1% 18.0% 12.0% a Average percentage of air time estimated by each category of respondents regarding the proportion of foreign programs in current Japanese television programming as a whole, not counting satellite broadcasting. the 5% answering that domestic programs were superior, but when examined overall, the majority (81.1%) felt that it was difficult to say whether foreign-produced programs were superior to domestic programs or vice versa. This pattern of responses stands in marked contrast to results obtained when respondents were asked about the superiority of foreign versus domestic films. Where films were concerned, 61.1% indicated that foreign films were better, 37% could not say either way, but only 1.9% felt that domestic films were better (Figure 2). As to which films they actually watched, 64.6% said they mostly watched foreign films or watched more foreign than domestic films, a much larger proportion than the 12.6% who said they mostly watched domestic films or watched more domestic than foreign films. Evaluation of foreign-produced television programs showed no differences according to respondents area of residence or age, but the preference for foreign films differed based on these criteria, clearly showing that those in the Tokyo metropolitan area, more than those living in regional areas, and younger rather than older people, preferred foreign films. Another question asked whether foreign broadcast material, including films and television 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% TV programs Foreign products better Films Cannot say Japanese products better Figure 2. Evaluation of foreign media products vis-à-vis Japanese products (based on data from Hagiwara, 1995b).

10 230 S. Hagiwara programs, had influenced their way of life or thinking. A small number, 3.6%, said that such programs had a considerable influence, while the majority, 51.7%, said that they had some influence. On the other hand, nearly half of the respondents (44.7%) said that foreign programs did not have any influence on their way of life or thinking, indicating that there is little basis for the charge that the impact of foreign culture entering the country through television and films constitutes cultural imperialism in the case of Japan. Respondents who said they had been influenced by foreign programs in some way were asked to write down more detailed answers, and although the number who did so was small, positive answers like I was exposed to new ways of living or thinking or it helped broaden my outlook predominated. Japanese people appear to be positive about acquiring a broad range of information about other countries, and many agreed with the statements Japanese news programs should carry more foreign news and Japanese television should air foreign programs other than American productions. On the other hand, on negative statements such as Few foreign programs have much appeal for Japanese people or There are many interesting foreign films, but few interesting television dramas, the largest proportion of respondents were noncommittal. However, more respondents disagreed than agreed, showing that Japanese people do not necessarily view the content of foreign television dramas negatively. Thus, the survey results made it clear that the majority of Japanese people do not think that foreign-produced programs have a negative effect on society and confirm that, on the contrary, they believe such programs promote learning about and understanding of foreign cultures and help broaden viewers outlook and world view. Therefore, the major reason for the unpopularity of imported programs should be attributed to the strong competition offered by domestically produced television programs, rather than xenophobia on the part of Japanese viewers. How then, can we explain the popularity of foreign films shown in movie theaters or on television, in contrast to relatively low-rated foreign-produced television dramas? Regarding movie theater, more Japanese than foreign films were shown up to the 1960s and they attracted larger audiences, but after 1970 the figures reversed, and today foreign films are much more popular than domestic productions, especially among the younger generations, who are more likely to be movie-goers than older generations. The rapid growth of television in the 1960s dealt a severe blow to the Japanese film industry, from which it has still not recovered. The main reason why foreign films have continued to dominate the market appears to be that few appealing Japanese films have been produced. Even though the foreign-produced programs with the highest audience ratings on Japanese television were mostly limited to foreign, particularly U.S., feature films shown during prime time on commercial networks, they are not, of course, guaranteed to win high ratings. A film shown at prime time may have high audience ratings if it has been a box-office hit or if it stars a popular actor or actress. Compared with foreign films, foreign television dramas generally get little prior publicity and few feature star performers, and their appeal is probably low for these reasons. On television it is the usual practice to dub foreign films into Japanese, especially those shown in the prime time slot where large audiences can be expected, so that viewers can follow the plot without paying full attention to the screen, whereas in movie theaters they are almost always shown with Japanese subtitles in order to preserve the original flavor of the film. These practices reflect the different character of television and movie theaters. Television is a medium embedded in everyday life. People watch a variety of programs over several hours, and programs are frequently interrupted by commercials. Some people even do household chores while watching television. On the other hand, those who go to movie theaters are there to get away from the drudgery of daily life, and they absorb themselves completely in the fictional world of a film. In this sense, the unfamiliar setting and characters of foreign media

11 Japanese television as a window on other cultures 231 products may be better suited for showing in movie theaters, where departure from reality is highly valued, than in one s own living room where the small television screen is embedded in familiar daily surroundings. Concluding remarks The survey results clearly indicate that Japanese people are positively disposed toward foreign program imports. They believe that such programs help broaden viewers perspectives and promote learning about foreign cultures. No clear tendency emerged, however, with respect to the notion of possible television stereotyping of foreign cultures; survey responses were divided regarding the statement Foreign people and scenes in television tend to cultivate stereotyped images of countries among viewers. Whatever the perceived effects may be, empirical studies that examine the actual effects of foreign-produced television programs or mass-media-generated information about foreign countries in general are quite limited in number. In a study that investigated the effects of the NBC mini-series Shogun on adolescent viewers in the United States, for example, Shatzer, Korzenny, and Griffis-Korzenny (1985) reported that exposure to the program was a significant predictor of knowledge of Japanese language, history, and customs, as measured by factual questions about program contents, though it was not found to affect stereotypes of Japanese people. In this regard Iwao and Pool (1983) pointed out that prior contact with Japanese people and culture was the determining factor of the effectiveness of the program, since U.S. viewers had very little knowledge of Japan, showing a great deal of confusion concerning the historical periods and the country in which Shogun was staged. As for the Japanese serial drama Oshin, which was broadcast in 45 countries in the years between 1984 and 1995, a few studies were conducted to account for the reason why the program was accepted and achieved high ratings in each country, but its effect on viewers perceptions of Japan was not addressed in these studies (Mowlana & Rad, 1992; Shefner-Rogers, Rogers, & Singhal, 1998; Takahashi, 1994). Concerning the more general effect of television in cultivating conceptions of social reality about foreign countries, not limited to the effect of specific programming, Saito (1993, in press) examined the relationship between various measures of television exposure and perceptions of the United States among Japanese viewers. Although the results generally supported the cultivation hypothesis, the scale and direction of such effects varied depending on which aspects of U.S. society were perceived and how media exposure was measured in the survey. For instance, while total television viewing and viewing of U.S. programs were both associated with the image of the United States as crime-ridden, the amount of viewing of television news was a more reliable indicator of the gender-equality image. It was also shown that the racial-equality image was more strongly associated with newspaper reading than any measure of television exposure, although heavy viewers of television and of news programs were more likely to think that people in the United States were non-racist, and this tendency was most pronounced for females, the less educated, and light newspaper readers (Saito, in press). It may be that the cultivation of uniform and stereotypical images is less likely to emerge for the United States than for other countries, since information about the country is so abundant that conflicting views may be presented in a wide variety of topics covered in various Japanese media. Even though U.S.- produced television programs do not have a large following in Japan, the United States is the country most heavily covered in the Japanese media, not only on television but also in newspapers and magazines. In order to cultivate a certain image of a foreign country through television, domestically produced (nonfiction) programs, particularly news and documentaries dealing with the country, may exert a greater influence on viewers than foreign-produced (fiction) programs imported from the country in question. In a metaanalysis of 27 studies that used direct measures

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