Abstract
Following the 2021-22, 2022 and 2023 surveys, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute conducted its fourth survey on the diversity of on-screen representation in Japanese television programs in 2024.
Focusing on NHK and five major commercial broadcasters, we conducted the following two surveys. 1) Metadata analysis of gender balance and representation of individuals who appeared on all television programs during a week in June. 2) Coding analysis of individuals who spoke or were quoted in weekday-evening national news and current affairs programs during a week each in June and November. For these news programs we looked at the representations of gender, of people with disabilities, the diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and the geographical distributions where the individuals spoke or were interviewed.
The ratios of women to men were roughly 4:6 across all programs and 3:7 in evening news programs, indicating the underrepresentation of women, consistent with our past three surveys. The results also confirmed the continued bias toward middle-aged and older men, as well as younger women. Among women, the largest represented age groups were in their 20s for all programs and 19-39 for news programs whereas among men, the largest age groups were in their 40s in all programs and 40-64 in news programs.
Women in news were more likely to appear as anonymous citizens while men were more likely to appear as the main subject of the news and figures of authority. Looking at the titles of individuals featured, among “politicians,” men were represented approximately ten times more than women, and more than five times as “sports professionals,” which includes individuals such as coaches and staff as well as players. The only categories in which women were represented more than men were “pensioners and the elderly,” “youth and children,” and “parents and families.”
We also saw similar trends to previous surveys in other areas of representation in news. The representation of people with disabilities—individuals who we were able to identify as “people with disabilities”—together with “people who may have disabilities,” was less than 1%. This is far below the national figure of approximately 9% of the total population.
The locations at which individuals spoke or were interviewed within Japan were, as in previous surveys, heavily concentrated in Tokyo. Overseas, the most frequently represented region was North America. In terms of the diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, “people with European backgrounds” had the largest representation after “Japanese.” These data indicate the weight given to American politics, especially the leading figures in the sitting government, in Japanese news.
As in previous surveys, our coding analysis of news programs is based primarily on audiovisual and narrative cues. As such, there may be instances where gender identities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, or disabilities were overlooked or misinterpreted. However, the consistency of our survey results over four years suggests that what we capture is representative of what is presented in the news—and what the audience actually sees. That picture—the world of television—continues to fall short in its role to reflect the diversity of our society.
