Dochakuka: Melding Global inside Local: Foreign-Domestic Advertising Assimilation in Japan

Abstract

Japan's advertising industry has a long history of employing foreign actors. This article probes the proposition that over time this media exposure affects advertising industry's willingness to change and meld the presentation of foreign people in local contexts in ads. An empirical study supports the proposition that some level of foreign-domestic advertising assimilation-dynamic is occurring in Japan. The article reports a content analysis examining 102 television advertisements run during 1992 and 2002 that confirms the principle proposition. Changes in verbal and nonverbal communication modalities suggest that foreign-actor domestic assimilation is occurring. The article illustrates how advertisers go about showing foreigners in Japanese contexts to transform the old saw, “Think global, act local” into the more actionable dictum, “Meld global inside local.”