On July 31, an organization called Shufu Rengo, along with a conference of groups that address alcohol-related issues, sent a letter to liquor-industry associations containing a "request" to enforce "self-regulation" of television commercials targeting women.
The letter cited a recent survey of 64 alcohol-related advertisements. It found that 38 of the advertisements featured people "drinking alone," among which 22 were female. In one TV commercial, a young woman was "singing and dancing under a blue sky," while in another a woman "drank on her terrace." What Shufu Rengo, which I will translate as the League of Housewives, found disturbing was that the women were shown "drinking happily during the daytime."
These two ads were all over TV last summer. In the first, popular young actress Kyoko Fukada is seen on a white-sand beach belting out an old Seiko Matsuda hit while holding a can of Kirin's Hyoketsu chuhai (Japanese alcopop). In the other spot, equally popular young actress Aoi Miyazaki sits on her balcony admiring the weather while drinking plum wine. Her silly behavior earlier in the commercial indicates that she's probably had one too many.