list of contributors - GALA

cease and desist orders, administrative surcharges, private tort claims, and
criminal charges. In addition to oversight and controls by health inspectors,
violation of the Pharmaceutical Act carries possible criminal sanctions.
B. Industry Self-Regulation
Industry regulation is the “passive” side of Japanese law with regard to
advertising content regulation. As mentioned above, consistency with
industry standards of “appropriateness” largely determine whether or not a
particular advertisement will be run in the Japanese media.
The Japanese advertising industry consists of roughly 6 major associations
comprising advertising, print, and broadcast media. These associations have
established the Japan Advertising Review Organization or (“JARO”) to
handle manage advertising complaints and claims pertaining to advertising.
JARO possesses a series of ethical guidelines requiring adherence to
standards of truth, youth interests, consumer protection, social customs,
relevant laws, and public policy. In practice, JARO receives complaints, and
then forwards them on to ad agencies or media outlets for further handling.
These organizations engage in a sort of private regulation in conformance
with their own standards.
Finally it worth noting that regulation does not only exist at the public and
industry level. In actuality, a great deal of influence upon the acceptability of
advertising content is in the hands of the pressure group. Indeed, social
pressure groups represent tangible public response to advertising content,
and actively protest to industry organizations about advertisements with
content objectionable to discrimination, sexuality, alcohol, and other social
norms.