Japanese Ads for Foreign Consumers – Winter 1958

Mato & I found a set of 4 magazines from between 1958-1960 at an antique store recently. It’s called “Japan Magazine” and it appears to be targeted toward Americans and Europeans living in Japan. The whole magazine is in English and the articles are written by both Japanese and foreigners, and everything is edited by a Japanese staff. That’s probably why there are some silly-sounding phrases here and there.

I picked out some interesting advertisements to share from Volume 1, Issue 3:

Click on the thumbnails for a closer look:

Looks like the focus is on industry and production, with a few sprinkles of creature comforts. That Ajinomoto ad in the style of American 1950s ads is my favorite of the bunch. And given that there’s been a sort of anti-MSG movement in recent years, it’s doubly amusing.

3 thoughts on “Japanese Ads for Foreign Consumers – Winter 1958”

  1. What a cool find!

    Do you know if the ads were designed by American companies or if they were designed by Japanese companies trying to emulate American ads?

  2. I have only heard of Ajinomoto because they sponsored a Super Famicom not-for-sale prize game. I want to say it was Motoko’s Wonder Kitchen. I’m not sure really what it even is but I bought it a few years ago when it was one of those “rare, but nobody really cares about it” games.
    I think there were two versions of UFO Yakisoba-man or something, one of the many games Mato wrote about out on his old website. I they were cover variations. One a prize-only game and the other a proper retail game.

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