12/18/14 10:22 AMejcjs - Japanese Women's Magazines: Inspiration and Commodity

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Discussion Paper 6 in 2003First published in ejcjs on 20 October 2003

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Japanese Women'sMagazines

Inspiration and Commodity

by

Stephanie Assmann

PhD Candidate Department of Oriental Studies

University of Hamburg

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About the Author

Introduction

The Japanese market shows a high turnover of differentmagazines. Tanaka Keiko (1998) has pointed out thatthirteen hundred magazines were launched or re-launchedbetween 1980 and 1985 (Tanaka 1998: 113). Magazinestargeted at women play an important part in the Japaneseprint media. There are almost 1,000 commercialmagazines that contain a high percentage ofadvertisements. More than 140 of these magazines targetfemale readers exclusively (Skov and Moeran 1995: 59).

Women’s magazines fulfil several roles in Japaneseconsumer behaviour. On the one hand they may be seen

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as mere ‘tools’, which provide useful information aboutthe latest trends in consumption, but on the other handthey can also be viewed as “commodities themselves” asthe sociologist John Clammer has argued (Clammer 1997:115). Moreover, an analysis of Japanese women’smagazines also provides an insight about social changesin contemporary Japan.

Based on quantitative surveys since the 1950s[1] Japanhas been viewed in many respects as a very homogeneousmiddle class society. Few ethnic differences, an equalincome distribution, equal access to education andoccupation as well as similar consumer patterns havebeen perceived to be major characteristics of Japanesesociety. Also, according to these quantitative surveys asignificant majority of about 90 percent of Japanesecitizens identify with the middle class. However, it hasbeen argued that this identification with the middle classis less seen as a middle class consciousness in a concretesense, but is derived from middle class oriented patternsof consumption. However, the view of Japanese societyas a more or less classless society has increasingly comeunder scrutiny, especially after the burst of the economicbubble. Clammer argues that social differences do exist inJapan and are expressed in the form of statuscompetition[2], which is implicated in acts ofconsumption (Clammer 1997: 4).

Especially during the second half of the 1980s adiversification of consumer patterns has been moreintensely discussed and linked to the increasingimportance of lifestyle. The recognition of moreindividualistic consumer patterns and the identification ofdistinct consumer groups have also led to the recognitionof value changes [kachikan no henka] in Japanese society.The results of surveys (sōgō shikō chōsa), which wereconducted by the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS),show a combination of seemingly contradictory values.These values include an interest in fashion, travel,pleasure and free time on one hand but also show theimportance of more frugal values such as caring for afamily and building up savings for one’s old age on theother (Watanabe 1994: 155-157). These changes ofperception are also reflected in women’s magazines.

In this paper I propose to develop the following argument.At first sight, women’s magazines seem to focus on thepurely “non-utilitarian” (Clammer 1997: 162), onenjoyment and diversion focused solely on theindividual’s fulfilment. However, while suggestingfreedom of lifestyle and consumer choice, women’s

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magazines also reveal information about agesegmentation, the identification of different consumergroups and socio-economic differences. In addition,magazines contain precise instructions about certain rulesto adhere to, for example which clothes to wear or whichmake-up to use.

History of Women's Magazines in Japan

The history of women’s magazines goes back to thebeginning of the 20th century. For example, the women’smagazine Fujin Gahō [Illustrated Women’s Gazette],which is still published today, was established in 1905.The so-called lifestyle magazines evolved during the1970s and 1980s (Rosenberger 1996: 20) Readers of theselifestyle magazines like AnAn and Nonno, magazines thatare still popular today, are young women in their lateteens and early twenties. Between 1977 and 1988 avariety of magazines with English and French nameswere launched. Among these were the magazinesCroissant (1977), More (1980), ViVi (1983), Classy(1984) and With (1981) (Ueno 1992: 152 and Tanaka1998: 112). Moreover, between 1980 and 1985 Japaneseeditions of Western magazines were launched, such asCosmopolitan (1980), Elle and Marie Claire (both in1982) (Tanaka 1998: 112)[3].

These lifestyle magazines focus mainly on issues ofconsumption. They contain information about the latestfashion trends, cosmetics, lifestyle, local restaurants andcultural events. However, some of the magazines, likeKeiko to Manabu, also provide information on furtherschooling and education, language courses and the use ofcomputers. Other magazines concentrate mainly onhousehold issues like electrical appliances and storage insmall Japanese homes.

Almost all of the magazines contain large sections ofvisual elements and commercial advertisements oftenfocusing on brand clothes and expensive cosmetics.Headlines are often printed in bold letters; visual elementsconsist of a combination of photography and manga[comic] elements whereas written text remains restrictedto a minimum (Clammer 1995: 200-201).

Women’s Magazines and their Role for theIndividual

Bearing in mind the argument put forward in theintroduction, I would now like to turn to the role of

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magazines for the individual. Magazines which primarilyfocus on household issues contain useful information forthe individual which can be easily implemented inconsumer decisions.

However, many of the glossy lifestyle magazines focus onexpensive brand goods that the majority of their readersare not able to afford. Yet, these lifestyle magazines seemto suggest an almost unlimited freedom of consumerchoice. Despite the fact that many of the productsadvertised are not affordable, readers can view thesemagazines as a source of inspiration and information andmay be able to purchase cheaper substitute productsinstead.

Magazines can also be seen as a commodity, asentertainment. The content of the magazines does notnecessarily have an immediate influence on consumerdecisions. Rather, magazines emphasize playfulness anddiversion as well as the possibility of momentarywithdrawal from work and family responsibilities ineveryday life.

Identification of Consumer Groups

The above argument centred on the ‘non-utilitarian’ roleof magazines for the individual. Now, I would like to turnto the meaning of magazines with regards to theidentification of consumer groups and socio-economicgroups.

A magazine with the Japanese name Hanako, which waslaunched in 1988, idealized and influenced thedevelopment of the so-called Hanako-tribe (Hanako-zoku)[4], a group of women who were in their latetwenties at the height of the bubble period. The readers ofthis magazine were seen as extremely consumer-orientedand interested in frequent trips abroad, brand products,going to expensive restaurants, music and theatre(Sugawara 1991: 110). Hanako provided advice abouthow to handle these matters of consumption - how tobook a hotel room abroad, how to have the ‘correct’conversation at the hotel reception and also suggestedwhat kind of brand products to buy. As Clammer (1997)has argued, Hanako represented a “guide to consumption”(Clammer 1997: 118). Hanako’s main target groupsconsist of university students, housewives and youngerprofessional women (Clammer 1997: 116).

The term Hanako has survived until today: The DentsūResearch Institute has coined the term ‘Post-Hanako’

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(posuto Hanako ga shōhi o kaeru) to describe theconsumer patterns of the successors of the Hanako-zoku,unmarried working women between the ages of 25 and 34years who spend their disposable incomes largely onconsumption. The fact that these terms have been createdto identify consumer groups shows how consumption andthe print media are interwoven (Dentsū 1999).

Nancy Rosenberger (1996) has described thestandardization of consumer groups: “… high schoolstudents; women students in higher education; young,unmarried working women; and young housewives.”(Rosenberger 1996: 20) Furthermore, women’smagazines centre strongly life-cycle of a woman and offerthe ‘appropriate’ magazine for each age, situation in life,and for transition periods in life. When entering aJapanese magazine store this standardization of consumergroups becomes obvious. Magazines for teenagers andwomen in their early twenties are clearly separated.Between 25 and 30 years of age, some magazines focuson bridal fashion, household goods, and the education ofchildren while other magazines target the mostlyunmarried career woman (kyaria ūman).

However, increasingly during the 1970s clearly definedroles of married and unmarried women and of workingwomen and housewives were beginning to break down(Tanaka 1998: 111). Life-cycles of women are not aspredictable any more and biographies are more stronglyshaped by changing work situations. Earlier, I mentionedthe importance of both frugal and pleasure-orientedvalues. The increasing break-up of defined roles and acombination of different value sets may also eventuallylead to a break-up of the standardization of consumergroups.

Enjoy the Freedom but Follow the Rules

Above, I referred to the role of magazines in shaping theperception of freedom of choice as well as theirentertainment role. However, taking a closer look,magazines are subject to rules and regulations, to whichtheir readers are subtly encouraged to adhere. Often thelanguage of the magazines employs imperatives to givedetailed instructions about which clothes to wear or whichmake-up to use. As Tanaka Keiko (1998) has argued:“The prescriptiveness of the language employed inwomen’s magazines is a striking characteristic. The toneof many of the features is blunt and hectoring, a curiouspoint, given the alleged Japanese concern with politenessand the avoidance of confrontation.” (Tanaka 1998: 117)

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Magazines also give advice about how to create adifferent self according to the situation. A double page inthe magazine CanCam (February 2001: 168-169) showsdifferent combinations of clothes so that the reader caneither look like a poised and elegant adult (otonappokuereganto) or cute and casual (kawaiku kajuaru). A scalebetween 20% and 100% determines how ‘cute’ or how‘elegant’ a woman can appear in different clothes.

Magazines convey ideas on how to play with differentselves and personalities. The reader is able to choose froma menu of possible combinations. The Japanesesociologist Ueno Chizuko (1992) has mentioned the“staging of the being like me” (watashi rashisa oenshutsu suru) (Ueno 1992: 097) in this context. Thefollowing interview, which I conducted with a 36-year-old Japanese woman supports this argument:

… at times it can happen that I discover anew self … When I was getting divorced andI felt miserable, my face looked dreadful ….I somehow looked different even though Iwas still using the same make-up as before.… I went to a cosmetics store and said: Iwant to change. … Also artists (ātisuto) usemake-up … yes, [I am] such an artist.(Excerpt from an interview conducted with ahospital employee, 25th February 2001 inKyoto.)

Reinforcement of Gender Divisions andSocio-economic Differences

In addition to the functions of entertainment, self-actualization and normative behaviour already discussedabove, some authors have emphasized the reinforcementof gender roles and socio-economic divisions reflected inwomen’s magazines. Nancy R. Rosenberger (1996) hasargued that women’s magazines stress individuality,enjoyment and sexual attractiveness while at the sametime emphasizing the home/work divide.

Going back to the 1920s, women’s magazines targeted“women of the new middle class who were married tosalaried businessmen and government officials.”(Rosenberger 1996: 20). These magazines were intendedfor the middle-class suburban housewife who centred herconsumption on the home and the well-being of herhusband and children.

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Taking the upscale magazine Fujin Gahō as an example,John Clammer (1997) has pointed out the correlationbetween magazines and social stratification[5]. There is adivision between lifestyle magazines for teenagers andyoung women, which rather reflect a segmentation of ageand magazines like Fujin Gahō, which

… is clearly intended for the relativelywealthy, leisured upper-class housewife. Itsrestrained elegance …, its use of oldermodels, the spacious interiors depicted ininterviews with successful women, all thesespeak volumes. This is not the world of theOL, of the university student still living athome or of the young housewife of a juniorsalaryman in a 2DK …. (Clammer 1997:125.)

Conclusion and Outlook

Japanese women’s magazines show many contradictions.Magazines seem to suggest almost unlimited freedom ofindividual choice and fulfilment but yet at the same timestress the importance of conformity and societalexpectations. Magazines can be a source of practicalinformation and inspiration on the one hand, but alsoprovide precise rules about the appropriate way to makeuse of the products advertised in the magazines on theother. Magazines represent a microcosm of societal rulesand behaviour but also offer the possibility of enjoymentand momentary diversion. The non-utilitarian functionstands in sharp contrast to the educational tone used inmany of the magazines.

As commodities women’s magazines reinforce agesegmentation and have an influence on the recognitionand identification of consumer groups. I have mentionedthe importance of socio-economic differences reflected inwomen’s magazines. This is especially remarkable in asociety like Japan, which has long been regarded a middleclass society without major differences in socialstratification. However, magazines like Fujin Gahōreflect the existence of upper class women who exhibit adistinguished taste with regards to consumer decisions. Ihave shown that within a supposedly homogeneoussociety the identification of subgroups, especially inconsumer behaviour, is a striking phenomenon, whichsuggests that Japanese society is indeed more fragmentedthan was generally supposed.

Diversifying biographies and changing work situations

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increasingly shape consumer patterns in contemporaryJapan, especially among females. These changes in thelifecycles of Japanese women will also have an influenceon women’s magazines. Moreover, value changes inJapanese society will influence future consumptionpatterns as well. Combinations of pleasure-oriented andfrugal values are likely to be reflected in women’smagazines. Apart from issues of consumption, a growinginterest in the areas of further schooling, education andwork opportunities are being increasingly featured inwomen’s magazines and will continue to gain importancein the future.

Notes1. There are two quantitative surveys, which areconducted on a regular basis in Japan. The first of these iscalled yoron chōsa or kokumin seikatsu chōsa [kokuminseikatsu ni kansuru yoron chōsa, survey of publicopinion] and was conducted in 1930 by the PrimeMinister’s Office [sōri-fu naikaku sōri daijin kanbōkōkoku-shitsu] for the first time and has been carried outon a yearly basis since 1953. In this survey participantsare asked to rate their own living standard according toone of the following five categories (upper (ue), uppermiddle (naka no ue), middle middle (naka no naka),lower middle (shita no naka) and lower (shita)) (Naoi1994 [1979]: 366-367). The second survey is called SSM-survey and was conducted in 1955 for the first time andhas been conducted since then every ten years by a groupof sociologists from various Japanese universities. Theterm SSM stands for social stratification and socialmobility. Similar to the yoron chōsa participants areasked to rate their own living standard according to one ofthree social classes (kaikyū) (Naoi 1994 [1979]: 367).

2. André Béteille points out that although there is often noclearly defined distinction made between classes andstatus groups, it is useful to do so. While relationsbetween classes are shaped by conflict, relations betweenstatus groups are characterized by emulation. Referring toMax Weber, Béteille explains that “… a class is definedby its position in the system of production, whereas whatcharacterizes a status group is its pattern of consumption.”(Béteille 1996: 848)

3. For a more detailed overview of the history of Japanesewomen’s magazines from 1900 until the 1980’s seeTanaka 1998: 110-113.

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4. The meaning of the suffix –zoku can be translated as‘tribe’ to identify groups of people in society. There areseveral examples of the suffix –zoku used in Japanese. Atthe beginning of the 1980s the term kurisutaru-zoku wascoined, which referred to the famous novel Nantonaku,Kurisutaru (Somewhat Crystal) written by Tanaka Yasuo.In this novel Tanaka described the frenzied consumerbehaviour of teenagers and their obsession with expensivebrand products. Also, the terms AnAn-zoku and AnNo-zoku have been created to describe the readers of themagazines AnAn and Nonno.

5. Béteille (1996) defines the term social stratification as“… the division of people into layers or strata which maybe thought of as being vertically arranged, in the sameway that layers of the earth are arranged above or belowother layers” (Béteille 1996: 846). Social stratificationrefers to the fact that individuals occupy unequalpositions in society. There are different criteria such asincome, wealth, occupation and education that determinean individual’s position in society. However, theimportance of these criteria may be ranked differentlyaccording to a given society: “Social stratificationmanifests itself typically through differences in styles oflife among members of the same society …. Suchdifferences relate to both the material and the non-material sides of life and may manifest themselves ingross or subtle ways …” (Béteille 1996: 848).

ReferencesBéteille, André (1996) “Stratification” in Kuper, Adamand Jessica Kuper (eds) The Social Science Encyclopedia,2nd Edition, London: Routledge: 846-849.

Clammer, John R. (1997) Contemporary Urban Japan:A Sociology of Consumption, Oxford: Blackwell.

Clammer, John R. (1995) “Consuming Bodies:Constructing and Representing the Female Body inContemporary Japanese Print Media” in Skov andMoeran (eds) Women, Media and Consumption in Japan:197-219.

CanCam, Shōgakukan Publishers, February 2001.

Dentsū Research Institute (ed.) (1999) TrendboxReport: Posuto Hanako ga shōhi o kaeru (Post-Hanako[generation] change consumption).

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Naoi, Michiko (1994 [1979]) “Kaisō ishiki to kaikyūishiki” (Stratum Consciousness and Class Consciousness)in Tominaga, Ken’ichi (ed.) Nihon no kaisō kōzō (TheStratification System of Japan), Tokyo: Tōkyō DaigakuShuppankai: 365-388.

Rosenberger, Nancy R. (1996) “Fragile Resistance,Signs of Status: Women between State and Media inJapan” in Imamura, Anne E. (ed.) Re-Imaging JapaneseWomen, London: Open University Press: 12-45.

Rosenberger, Nancy R. (1995) “AntiphonalPerformances? Japanese Women’s Magazines andWomen’s Voices” in Skov and Moeran (eds.) Women,Media and Consumption in Japan: 143-169.

Shiine, Yamato (1997) “‘Hanako’ to 80-nendai to hanani ka” (‘Hanako’ and the 1980’s) in Kawai, Hayao andChizuko Ueno (eds.) Yokubō to shōhi: Gendai nihonbunka-ron (Desire and Consumption. A Discourse onJapan Today), Vol. 8, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten: 77-100.

Skov, Lise and Brian Moeran (eds) (1995) Women,Media, and Consumption in Japan, Honolulu: Universityof Hawai’i Press.

Sugawara, Mariko (1991) Kawaru shōhi shakai:Seikatsu jūshi he no tenkan (Changing Consumer Society.A Shift towards Lifestyle Priorities), Tokyo: NTTShuppan.

Tanaka, Keiko (1998) “Japanese Women’s Magazines:The Language of Aspiration” in Martinez, D.P. (ed.) TheWorlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, ShiftingBoundaries and Global Cultures, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press: 110-132.

Tanaka, Yasuo (2001 [1981]) Nantonaku, kurisutaru(Somewhat Crystal), Tokyo: Shinchō Bunko.

Ueno, Chizuko (1992) ‘Watashi’ sagashi geemu: Yokubōshimin shakai-ron (The Search for the ‘Me’ Game: aSocial Theory of Desire for Self-hood), Tokyo: ChikumaShobō.

Watanabe, Hisanori (1994) “Shōhisha kōdō to kachikanno henka” (Consumer Behaviour and Value Change) inAkuto, Hiroshi (ed.) Shōhi kōdō no shakai-shinrigaku(Social Psychology of Consumer Behaviour) Tokyo:Fukumura Shuppan: 152-172.

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About the authorStephanie Assmann is currently a PhD Candidate in theDepartment of Oriental Studies at the University ofHamburg, Germany. She completed a MA degree inJapanese Studies, History and Political Science at theUniversity of Hamburg in 1997 and has worked forvarious Japanese companies in Japan and Germany,including a German-Japanese mail-order company inTokyo. From 1999 to 2001 she received a JapaneseMinistry of Education (Monbushō) scholarship from theJapanese Ministry of Education to do research towardsher doctoral dissertation at Dōshisha University in Kyoto.

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