UN Women launches Japan National Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance

May 19, 2020

Press release

UN Women Japan Liaison Office launched the Japan National Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance on 15 May 2020 in cooperation with the founding members the Japan Advertisers Association Inc. (JAA) and Nikkei Inc.

The Unstereotype Alliance, a thought and action platform, seeks to eradicate harmful gender- based stereotypes in all media and advertising content. Convened by UN Women, the Unstereotype Alliance contributes to empowering women in all their diversity and addressing harmful masculinities to help create a gender equal world.

At the Gender Gap Conference organized by Nikkei Inc. and Nikkei BP with support from the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan and as an official side event of the World Assembly for Women (WAW!) Shine Weeks, UN Women Japan Liaison Office announced the creation of the Unstereotype Alliance Japan Chapter in collaboration with founding ally the Japan Advertisers Association Inc. and Nikkei Inc. JAA is a leading organization bringing advertising companies together, to stimulate the creation of new ads, and to foster quality advertising. Nikkei Inc, is one of the largest independent business media groups with over 2.93 million paid subscribers in Japan. As for the members several private sector companies in Japan have already expressed interest in joining the Japan Chapter.

Over the past three years, the Unstereotype Alliance has built momentum behind notable achievements such as, including “unstereotyped” judging criteria as part of the Cannes Lions jury criterion and expanding its footprint through affiliate national chapters in Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and now Japan, the world's third-largest advertising market.

As a one year pilot project, the Japan National Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance will be looking into the ways and means to eliminate gender stereotypes and encourage the media and advertising industry to create progressive and unstereotyped content through workshops, online courses, interactions with global members of the Unstereotype Alliance and applying for the Nikkei Women’s Empowerment Awards. This newly created award in cooperation with UN Women Japan Liaison Office and JAA is aimed to provide incentives for the companies to produce unstereotyped ads. To support these activities, the Unstereotype Alliance Japan Chapter is honored to have Ms. Toko Shirakawa, Ms. Renge Jibu and Mr. Tetsuya Honda as experts to provide their insights and advice from extensive experience in the marketing and communications field.

Speaking at the Gender Gap Conference, Director of UN Women Japan Liaison Office, Kae Ishikawa said, “I believe in the power of advertisement and media as a game changer to address harmful gender stereotype and unconscious bias which are one of the main obstacles for gender equality and empowerment of women. Given the limited time left to

achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, I call on all partners to join us with creative minds and think-outside-of- box attitudes.”.

President of JAA Masatoshi Ito said his organization was “extremely excited to join the alliance. JAA believes that advertisement reflects and creates the society we want. Addressing the gender stereotypes in advertising is wanted more than ever for gender equality and empowerment of women in Japan”.

Senior Marketing Director of Nikkei Yoshihiro Hirata also adds his voice to say that “Nikkei group has been playing its part in achieving the SDGs through the articles and related events. To achieve the SDG 5 and help people change stereotypes and cultures, we would like to cooperate from the standpoint of the media. In this regard, recently we signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), established by UN Global Compact and UN Women, to show our commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community. We are happy to be part of this exciting opportunity”.

As convener, UN Women Japan Liaison Office will welcome more private sector partners to join the Alliance and lead the creative industry in addressing the unconscious bias against women and girls.

If you have any inquiries on this release, please contact;
UN Women Japan Liaison Office (http://japan.unwomen.org/ja) Email: japan.liaison@unwomen.org

For more information on Unstereotype Alliance, please go to www.unstereotypealliance.org For more information on Women’s Empowerment Principles, please go to www.weps.org