Unstereotype Alliance launches in Japan

On May 15^th, UN Women announced the launch of the Japan national chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance, with the Japan Advertisers Association (JAA) and media group Nikkei as founding members. This is a significant chapter in UN Women and the marketing industry’s partnership to eliminate harmful stereotypes in advertising.

The Japan chapter is the Unstereotype Alliance’s fourth national chapter following Brazil, Turkey and South Africa. JAA President Masatoshi Ito (pictured above) said: “We are extremely excited to join the alliance. JAA believes that advertising can reflect and shape the society we want. Addressing gender stereotypes in advertising is needed more than ever to foster gender equality and women empowerment in Japan.”

The announcement was made during the Gender Gap Conference at the World Assembly for Women (WAW!) Shine Weeks. Speaking at the event, Kae Ishikawa, Director of UN Women Japan Liaison Office (pictured above), said: “I believe in the power of advertising and media as a game changer to address harmful gender stereotypes and unconscious bias. Given the limited time left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, I call on all industry partners to join us with creativity and outside-the-box thinking.”

During its first year, Unstereotype Alliance Japan will explore initiatives to encourage the media and ad industry to create more progressive, unstereotyped content through workshops, online courses and ongoing dialogue with global members of the alliance. JAA’s Diversity Committee are working on research regarding diversity in ads and ways of working in the industry. Nikkei has also recently created the Women Empowerment Awards, in cooperation with UN Women Japan and JAA, which aims to recognise and provide incentives for companies to produce unstereotyped ads.

For more information, contact JAA.