Paper short abstract:

A brief look at how Japanese children's television has changed, or not, through its nearly seven decades of history. From Sazae-san to Super Shiro! What does this mean for the early audience? What might it say about the society it exists in?

Paper long abstract:

From threatening children with getting square eyes from watching too long, to using the set as a babysitter, most parents' acknowledge television is part of their children's lives. Japanese children's television broadcasting spans nearly seventy years during which some programmes have been broadcast nearly the entire time (winning Guinness Book of World Record entries) whilst others are far newer. Japan may be unique in its early years broadcasting regarding this aspect of seemingly unchanged programme formats. Certainly in the UK, whilst there are comparisons between the two countries during the formation of the earliest TV channels and children's broadcasting, where the UK innovated and changed in the 70's, Japan kept some of its original programmes and formats to date. This begs the question, how is that possible? What circumstances allow such a lack of change?

The perceived innocence of children's television telling a story for entertainment, or basic literacy and numeracy education, hides other levels of encoded discourse. Are these discourses the reason that some of the programmes have not changed? How do the newer offerings of children's programming fare? Are they really beacons of change and innovation or are they simply modified continuations? Have internationality and globalisation significantly changed children's broadcasting in Japan? What does this children's television window on Japanese society tell us?